Modren polio vaccine is so effective then old vaccine

 A new vaccine against the polio virus has helped reduce the                  number of cases by more than 90%.

Research published online in the journal The Lancet, shows that the new vaccine is significantly better at protecting children against polio than the current popular vaccine.

It has already been used in Afghanistan, India and Nigeria.
The scientists behind the work believe this new vaccine could help to finally eradicate the disease.
Disease elimination
Mass vaccination campaigns have led to the number of polio endemic countries falling from 125 in 1988 to just four in 2005.

This meant an actual drop in cases from 350,000 to just 1,606 in 2009.

Polio is caused by one of 3 versions of the polivirus: type1, type 2 or type 3.
Until recently, vaccines targetting either all three forms of the virus or just one of them were used to immunisie children.
The last case of type 2 polio was recorded in India in 1999, so it's the other two types that need to be targeted to finally eliminate the disease.

The authors of the study carried out a trial in India comparing the commonly used old vaccines to the new one, which is taken orally.

In total, 830 newborn babies received either the new vaccine or one of the old vaccines in two doses - one at birth and one 30 days later.

Blood samples were taken before vaccination and after the first and second doses to measure seroconversion - the rise in antibodies produced by the immune system against polio.

It appears that the new vaccine is about 30% more effective in protecting against polio than the most commonly used vaccine to date.

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