Preparations for the Switch Accelerate
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One hundred and fifty five countries and territories are preparing for the removal of the type 2 component of the oral polio vaccine from use in April. © WHO

The world is fast approaching the largest globally synchronised project in the history of vaccines. Between 17 April and 1 May 2016, every country in with world using the oral polio vaccine (OPV) will switch from the trivalent vaccine (tOPV), which protects children against all three types of the virus, to the bivalent vaccine which protects children against type one and three. Now that type two wild polio has been declared eradicated, this is an essential part of the work that needs to be done to secure a polio-free world by phasing out oral polio vaccines to prevent future outbreaks of vaccine-derived polioviruses.

Find out more about why the switch needs to happen to stop vaccine derived polioviruses, how it will be done and the risk mitigation measures being put in place to help it run smoothly.

With just eight weeks to go until 17 April, preparations for the switch are gathering momentum, with several important activities underway: