Scientists improved polio vaccines using advanced techniques to prevent outbreaks and paralysis. The changes made oral vaccines safer and more stable. It’s a big step in fighting polio worldwide. Scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom worked together on this achievement. Now, the challenge is to ensure vaccines reach many children and protect them from polio, which causes paralysis. Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since the late 1980s, making it easier for people to move. However, the original poliovirus still exists in some areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Oral vaccines play a vital role in the global effort to eliminate polio.

However, there are worries about the vaccines’ genetic stability. Even a tiny change in the virus can make the vaccine weaker and let it enter the nervous system, causing paralysis. Mutated viruses from vaccinated people can spread through waste and infect unvaccinated individuals, causing new outbreaks. Surprisingly, there are now more cases of “vaccine-derived polio” than the original poliovirus. Cases of polio linked to the oral vaccine have been discovered in London’s sewage system, which is concerning.