As efforts by the Federal Government to interrupt the spread of the polio virus increases, a new vaccine, Bivalent oral polio vaccine, will be included in the immunization plus days. The new drug is capable of dealing effectively with the type 1 and type 3 polio virus.

The new vaccine if used will also take care of the circulating mutated virus which has been noticed in some children who have never been vaccinated before.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Professor Muhammed Pate who made this known during a press briefing yesterday said though the new vaccine is presently not available in the country, plans were already in top gear to acquire it for the November rounds of immunization.

He explained that given the current momentum by all stakeholders to eradicate the virus, if the bivalent virus is used in the next round, polio would surely be a thing of the past as the vaccine is more effective and holds a lot of advantage for Nigeria if applied.

Pate added that the government had already approached the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure that Nigeria gets priority treatment in the distribution of the vaccine since it has been sighted as one of the major countries still battling with the polio virus.