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A study was conducted to investigate fractional doses of inactivated poliovirus vaccine in Oman in order to determine strategies to make them more cost-effective and affordable. Results indicated that intradermal administration of a fractional-dose inactivated polio vaccine could serve as a dose-sparing strategy when used in a primary care vaccination schedule wherein doses are administered at 2, 4 and 6 months of age.

A study was conducted to compare the efficacy of a newly developed immunogenic monovalent type 1 oral poliovirus vaccine with the trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine on newborns. Results revealed that the newly developed vaccine was superior to the trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine as it induced humoral antibodies.

Infections with hepatitis type B virus (HBV) are widespread in Asian countries. In childhood HBV is usually acquired either from the mother or another child. The United States, in contrast, does not have a high rate of HBV infections, and it is of some concern that many infected Southeast Asians refugees are settling in the US. The incidence of child-to-child transmission in the US is unknown. Although a HBV vaccine can be given to the infants of mothers infected with the virus, this cannot prevent the transmission of HBV from child to child. When the virus is acquired early in life, the infected person is more likely to become a chronic carrier of the disease and eventually die early of liver disease. A HBV detection test was performed on 257 children born in the US of Southeast Asian parents to study the patterns of transmission. Of the 31 children born to infected mothers, 17 tested positive for HBV. Fifteen of the remaining 226 children born to non-infected mothers had HBV infection. The risk for acquiring the infection was higher in households with HBV-infected children. However, the risk of a child's becoming infected by HBV was not affected by living in households with infected adults. Children testing positive for HBV that lived in households having no infected individuals, had a 3.9 percent infection rate. Since almost half the infected children did not acquire the HBV infection from infected mothers during pregnancy, child-to-child contact may be responsible for HBV transmission. Since vaccination of children born of infected mothers will not prevent infections obtained from child-to-child contact, it is suggested that all children born to Southeast Asian immigrants be vaccinated.