Pulse Polio vaccination onJan 10

I do not do pulse polio - I look at it as medicine taken away from one child who cant afford it otherwise. I am up to date on his polio vaccination and dont feel the need to duplicate vaccines.

 

P - If I were you I would do the drops on pulse polio Day. The 15th month vaccination is MMR not polio. The next time she gets OPV will be at 18 months (assuming you are on the usual schedule here).

Krithi - One of the points of having a pulse program (apart from individual immunization) is this theory that if all the kids below 5 (who are the main carriers of the polio virus) in an area get the OPV on one day then the vaccine virus will replace the wild virus that is uusually present and we can thereby drive out the wild virus from existence (like smallpox). This theory has its detractors but my take is, if at all it is true then for it to work we all have to do it whether are kids are already immunized or not. In TN anyway most kids are already immunized but the pulse program still runs. Its of course your decision to go with it or not.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_Polio summarizes what I am trying to say.

V.

 

Thanks for posting the link Vanathi. I reading up more on the polio vaccine now. I did not quite get the way mass polio vaccination worked. I did talk to DH about it, we are both looking at our own sets of literature. I am not sure he will agree given that most docs we know say it is not necessary. But nonetheless, thanks for giving me a new perspective.

 

Seeing this thread late. I did speak to couple of Paeds and all of them said it is not necessary as DD will be getting it this month end.
Anyway, the date is past, I guess.