Ethiopia kicks off the second-round polio campaign with the new tool “nOPV2 vaccine” to tackle an ongoing polio outbreak

On 15 April 2022, Ethiopia kicked off the second-round polio campaign with type 2 novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2) aiming to protect over 16 million under-five children from disability and death attributed to the ongoing polio outbreak in the country. The four-day campaign will be conducted in all regions except Tigray, Addis Ababa and Afar, which the later implemented the first-round campaign in early April and will need to adhere to the four-week interval between the first and second doses to the vaccine.
The launching was held in different regions in the presence of government officials, elders, religious and community leaders, parents and/or caregivers and partners.
The campaign is led and coordinated by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) and the emergency operation centers (EOCs) at all levels with support from partners.
The nOPV2 vaccine is a new tool approved through an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) procedure replacing the monovalent type 2 oral poliovirus (mOPV2) vaccine based on its superiority on proven protection against type 2 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2).