IPV (Inactivated Polio vaccine)

The inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is given to prevent polio. Some children and adults who get a serious case of polio can become paralyzed.  Because of the extremely effective vaccination program against polio, the disease has been virtually eliminated from the United States and almost from the world. Although the disease in the US is extremely rare, there are still cases of polio each year in other countries. Therefore, it is important to protect our children with vaccines so that they cannot get the disease when someone brings the virus into the US from another country.

Side effects of the Inactivated Polio Vaccine are rare. Older parents may remember giving their children an oral (live virus) form of the polio vaccine. Because of rare but serious reactions to the oral vaccine (vaccine associated paralysis), we now only use Inactivated (killed) Polio Vaccine (IPV). This vaccine (IPV) only comes in an injection. IPV does not cause vaccine associated paralysis as the oral polio virus did in the past.