Albert Sabin and OPV
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Polish-born American physician and virologist who developed the first effective and widely used live virus polio vaccine.
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Upon receiving his medical degree at New York University in 1931, Sabin immediately began research on the nature and cause of polio.
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He proved that the poliovirus not only grew in nerve tissue but that they lived in the small intestines as well. This discovery indicated that polio might be vulnerable to a vaccine taken orally.
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Sabin's vaccine was free of dangerous viruses, easily administered orally and effective over a long period of time. It was a live virus vaccine that was used in the United States and the rest of the world to eliminate polio.
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After its introduction in the 1960s, OPV became the predominant vaccine.
The oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) is administered by drops in the mouth. Once the drops are swallowed, the virus multiplies in the lymph nodes and small intestines. The immune system then generates antibodies in order to fight off the virus. (1)
There are three different types of OPV. The trivalent, tOPV, contains all three serotypes of live attenuated polioviruses: PV1, PV2, and PV3. The bivalent, bOPV, contains two of the three serotypes: PV1 and PV3. The monovalent, mOPV, contains one of the three serotypes. Each serotype treats a different strand of the polio virus. (2)
The mOPV is the most effective because of its specificity. When a child is vaccinated with mOPV1, the immunity to serotype 1 is found in roughly 70 to 80 percent of children. When a child is vaccinated with tOPV, the immunity to serotype 1 is only found in 20 to 40 percent of children. (3)
OPV was often admistered to children using sugar cubes.
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Both tOPV and mOPV were given three times in a child's life, usually in the first few months of an infant's life. A "booster" is also given when the child reaches school age. Immunity against polio was very effective because of the several doses. (4)
Albert Sabin demonstrates how the oral vaccine for polio is given to children.
Most cases of vaccine-derived polioviruses occur outside of the United States.
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Vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) are rare mutated strains of the lived attenuated virus. There are several different types of VDPVs, such as circulating vaccine-derived viruses (cVDPVs), which can cause paralysis. OPV has also been known to cause vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP), which converts the virus back into its infectious form, attacking the nervous system.
In 2000, OPV was dropped from immunization programs in the United States because of these risks in favor of IPV. (5)
Footnotes
1. Britannica School, s.v. "Poliomyelitis," accessed January 16, 2019, https://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/polio/60621.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Brigit Katz. "A Polio-Like Illness Is Causing Paralysis in Children." Smithsonian. Last modified October 29, 2018. Accessed May 3, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/polio-illness-causing-paralysis-children-180970657/.
7. "Jonas Salk and Albert Bruce Sabin." Science History Institute. Accessed May 3, 2019. https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/jonas-salk-and-albert-bruce-sabin.
8. "Albert Sabin Quotes." AZ Quotes. Accessed May 16, 2019. https://www.azquotes.com/author/47742-Albert_Sabin.
9. "Albert Sabin." Knowledge Encyclopedia. Accessed May 17, 2019. https://www.notablebiographies.com/knowledge/Albert_Sabin.html.
10. Karie Youngdahl. "Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus and the Eradication Endgame." The History of Vaccines. Last modified May 29, 2013. Accessed May 17, 2019. https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/circulating-vaccine-derived-poliovirus-and-eradication-endgame.