Old-fashioned vaccine fights polio resurgence

A jab to protect children against polio that fell out of favour in the 1960s should be given a frontline role to help stamp out the disease, doctors reported in The Lancet on Friday. The injection can provide better and long-lasting protection against the polio virus when used to supplement oral vaccine, which replaced it in most countries, they said. Oral polio vaccine (OPV) protects individuals against contracting the disease, but they can still be infected by the virus. It replicates in the gut and can then be passed to others through faecal-contaminated water, thus imperilling unvaccinated children.