The Republic of Moldova, alongside another 152 countries, will start to use the bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) instead of the trivalent one (tOPV) as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The Ministry of Health said April 30 is the last day when the tOPV vaccine will be used, IPN reports.

The production of the trivalent vaccine was suspended. Thus, during April 21-28 the new vaccine will be distributed to all the local public health centers. By April 30, the remaining tOPV vaccine will be collected from all the medical institutions involved in polio immunization and the local public health centers and will be destroyed.

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Poliovirus is usually spread from person to person through infected fecal matter entering the mouth.  It may also be spread by food or water containing human feces and less commonly from infected saliva. Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to six weeks even if no symptoms are present. The disease may be diagnosed by finding the virus in the feces or detecting antibodies against it in the blood.

The polio immunization started in 1955. Since 1993, Moldova witnessed no case of poliomyelitis.