Does my child need additional doses of polio vaccine if he received a combination of OPV and IPV?
No, four doses of any combination of IPV or OPV, properly spaced, is considered a complete poliovirus vaccination series. Why should I vaccinate my child against polio if this disease has been eliminated from the Western Hemisphere since 1991? Polio still exists in parts of Africa and Asia and can easily be imported. When the effort to eliminate polio from the world is successful, polio vaccine will become part of history. But we are not to that point yet. Should adults get vaccinated against polio? In the United States, routine vaccination of persons 18 years of age and older against polio is not recommended because most adults are already immune and also have little risk of being exposed to wild polio virus. Vaccination is recommended, however, for certain adults who are at increased risk of infection, including travelers to areas were polio is common, laboratory workers who handle specimens that might contain polioviruses, and healthcare workers in close contact with patients who mi
