Immunization recommendations for children previously immunized with oral poliovirus vaccine
Please be aware that the provincial polio vaccine recommendations for children previously immunized internationally with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) have been updated. These recommendations align with recently updated guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization as stated in the Canadian Immunization Guide (CIG).
In April 2016, the World Health Organization coordinated a global switch for countries who administer the oral polio vaccine – replacing the trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) with the bivalent OPV (bOPV), which contains poliovirus serotypes 1 and 3 but not serotype 2. For this reason, health care providers should presume that children vaccinated internationally with documented dose(s) of OPV administered on or after April 1, 2016, received bOPV. To ensure protection against all three poliovirus types, these children should complete a polio vaccine series with an inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) or an IPV-containing vaccine using an age-appropriate schedule.
Since OPV has not been used in Canada since 1996, this recommendation only affects those vaccinated internationally (e.g., newcomers). For these patients:
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Review available immunization records
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For any recorded doses of OPV administered April 1, 2016 or later, presume these doses are bivalent OPV (bOPV) (i.e., missing polio serotype 2) and consider these doses invalid
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Immunize with an age-appropriate series of IPV or IPV-containing vaccine, which contains all three poliovirus types
Those with inadequate immunization records or those lacking documented polio immunization should be considered unimmunized and started on an age-appropriate immunization schedule with an IPV-containing vaccine as per the catch up schedule in the Q&A for Immunizers and Public Health Ontario’s Summary of Immunization Recommendations for Children Previously Immunized with Oral Poliovirus Vaccine.
This is also an opportunity to review the complete immunization record or status of your patients and offer vaccines per the Publicly Funded Immunization Schedules for Ontario June 2022.
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