Inactivated enterovirus A71 vaccines and moving forward.

Abstract

The inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) was introduced in 1955 in the USA for the first time globally, and the excellent efficacy and safety of IPV have been widely accepted worldwide. IPV effectively elicits serum neutralizing antibodies against poliovirus types 1, 2, and 3 by multiple IPV doses and effectively prevents paralytic poliomyelitis.[1] However, vaccines against non-polio enteroviruses (NPEVs) had not been licensed for almost 60 years since the introduction of IPV. In response to the large-scale outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), including cases with severe and fatal neurological complications associated with enterovirus A71 (EV-A71), developing EV-A71 vaccine had been encouraged mainly in countries in the Western Pacific Region (WPR).[2,3] Three inactivated EV-A71 vaccines manufactured by three companies were approved in China from 2015 to 2016 to prevent EV-A71-associated diseases as the world's first NPEV vaccines.