Synopsis
Today
Saturday 24th October, on World Polio Day 2026, the LivingScience
Foundation calls for immediate cessation of the use of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV),
as has been strongly advocated by the World Health Assembly since 2012. Even if it were just one polio case that
would be prevented in Nigerian children by some intervention, the LivingScience
Foundation would still have been reluctant to criticize such an intervention. However, an intervention (such as the OPV)
which is KNOWN to create more polio cases (albeit given a different fancy name)
than it would prevent just does not make sense to us. No manner of technical jargons can obscure
the simple fact that the very same OPV which Low and Middle Income countries
are being persuaded to administer to their children en masse, has
been withdrawn from the High Income Countries, for decades – purely
on consideration of safety and effectiveness. On the often-cited issue of
costs, the LivingScience Foundation urges that the Federal Government should
prioritize the resuscitation of our Federal Vaccine Production Laboratory at
Yaba, Lagos, which had successfully served as the hub for vaccine production in
West Africa for over 50 years (1940 – 1991), before it was sabotaged by western
“philanthropists who promised an upgrade that never came.
We
welcome Nigeria to the World Polio Day 2026.
Poliomyelitis
(commonly known as “polio”) is a highly contagious disease caused by the poliovirus.
Targeting the nervous system, it can cause irreversible paralysis or even death.
To
date, the primary product used to combat the spread of polio in Nigeria is the Oral
Polio Vaccine (OPV), administered as 2 drops into the child’s mouth. LivingScience has issues with the continued
use of this product on our dear children, and hereby appeals for immediate
cessation to its use.
In
strongly promoting the use of the OPV, the international group End Polio Now bluntly
claims that:
“The use of OPV has helped reduce global
polio cases by over 99% since 1988, and it remains a vital tool in the
effort to end polio everywhere.” https://www.endpolio.org/en/what-is-polio
(italics added)
The
first big question is: where exactly is the “everywhere” where the OPV “remains
a vital tool” in the war against polio?
It
turns out that, actually, it is less than half (112 – 120 out of 248 – 256) nations
and territories that are still using OPV today. It is indeed more accurate to say
that the OPV is predominantly used in the “global south” - with Nigeria being a
principal client for the suppliers (who happen to be in “global north”.
On
the other hand, another type of polio vaccine, the Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine
(IPV) is exclusively used in routine immunization schedule of the wealthy
nations, such as the “United States, ….New Zealand, and
various high-income, low-risk European and high-readiness nations…..”
The
reason the wealthy nations STOPPED using OPV (the US since year 2000) is that the
use of OPV is GUARANTEED to result in more polio cases.
Which
brings us to the second big question: What polio cases are being reduced?
Surprising
question, because in reality polio is polio.
However, in technical discussions by global health authorities,
distinction is usually made of the original polio (wild polio) and the polio
that results from the use of OPV (vaccine-derived polio). Could have been amusing if not for the
gravity of the issue!
https://www.endpolio.org/en/what-is-polio
Notwithstanding
that End Polio Now actually tags the vaccine-derived polio (cVDPV) as “Variant
polio”, the “V” in “cVDPV” indeed actually
stands for “Vaccine” and not “Variant”.
It refers to polio arising from the deployment of the OPV. Simple.
Perhaps,
there are then some differences between these two “forms” of polios?
None
whatsoever!
Men
of courage and conscience have repeatedly called out this farcical situation, asking
that the use of OPV be proscribed globally.
A
landmark peer-reviewed article in Qeios explains concisely the problem with
OPV:
“For individual children there has always
been the risk of vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP). For the community,
the increasing risk has been genetic reversal of live vaccine viruses to
neuro-virulent ‘vaccine-derived polioviruses’ (VDPVs) which cause polio far
more frequently than VAPP and to ‘circulating VDPVs’ (cVDPVs) that are
essentially wild polioviruses”
https://www.qeios.com/read/X0N956
An
enlightening open-review and summary of the technical article is found here: https://www.qeios.com/read/YLUIU9
In
addition to the possibility of causing in the short-term, polio in individual
children, and the certainty of its causing what is called the circulating
vaccine-derived polio, Oral Polio Vaccine is also known to cause in the long-term
(between 15 – 30 years) what is known as the post polio syndrome
These
then, are precisely the reasons the wealthy nations stopped the use of OPV, reverting
back to the IPV – the much safer vaccine, which developed in 1955, became sidelined
by the then promising new OPV which debuted in 1961.
However,
principally because the continued use of OPV in the third world countries means
that polio (especially vaccine-derived polio) can still circulate to other
nations, the World Health Assembly, in May 2012, joined in the appeal for a
global cessation of the use of this product.
The
resolutions and decisions are provided in document WHA65/2012/REC/1, https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/wha65-rec1/a65_rec1-en.pdf
Nigeria,
at that time one of the three polio-endemic nations, concurred with this
decision; and in 2015 introduced the IPV with the promise that the phase-out of
the OPV was on the way.
The
report by the WHO reads, in part:
Abuja, 20 February 2015 -- Nigeria has
introduced the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) into the nation’s routine
immunization schedule at a ceremony presided over by the supervising Minister
of Health, Dr Alhassan Khaliru which was attended by the WHO Country
Representative (WR), Dr Rui Gama Vaz and other development partners such as
UNICEF, USAID, CDC, DFATD – Canada among others, in Abuja on 20 February 2015.
IPV is very safe and highly effective in preventing paralytic disease caused by
all three types of polio viruses.
In May 2012, the World
Health Assembly
declared the completion of poliovirus eradication to be a programmatic
emergency for global public health and called for a
comprehensive polio endgame strategy. As one of its four major
objectives, the plan calls on all oral polio vaccine (OPV)-only using countries
to……… withdraw OPV in a phased manner,
starting with type 2-containing OPV.
Speaking at the launch, the Minister
stated that the triple benefits accruable from the use of the IPV include risk
mitigation against wild poliovirus type 2, boosting immunity against types 1
and 3 as well as tackling the risk of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus
(cVDPV).
……… Substantial
progress has been made in recent years towards polio eradication with no case
of WPV1 being reported in the last six months and no reported cases of WPV3
since Nov 2013. …….. However, there was an
increase in circulating vaccine derived polioviruses cVDPV type 2 in 2014 with
30 cases reported.
Sadly,
more than a decade after this initiative and promise, another World Polio Day has
met us in Nigeria still fighting our battle against “Polio” with 4 doses of OPV
and 2 doses of IPV. This drama needs to
end. Now.
Joshua
O. Ojo (Ph.D)
Professor of Medical/Health Physics and
Environment
President,
LivingScience Foundation, Ile-Ife
24-10-2026
