Abstract

Polio is a potentially deadly and yet preventable disease. A vaccine is available but in order to get rid of the disease, this vaccine needs to have larger coverage. Unfortunately, this is not an easy goal in poorer countries. A single shot of polio vaccine is not enough to prevent the disease, and in developing countries, healthcare workers have difficulties reaching their patients more than once. This is why we wanted to develop a vaccine that requires only one injection. We used safe compounds to mimic the current 2-shot schedule and to stabilize the vaccine. Our tests showed promising results, and hopefully, this approach will help with the development of vaccines against other infectious diseases as well.