JULY 1-15, 2009 | VACCINE SHORTAGE - GET YOUR OWN VACCINE

How a plan to promote private vaccine makers boomeranged

- VIBHA VARSHNEY

SHUVAM KUMAR lay on an iron cot in the tetanus ward of the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in Patna, Bihar. After four days in the hospital, with stiff jaws and high fever, the two-year-old was too weak to cry when the nurse gave him an injection. There is little hope left of his survival, the family had been informed. His father, a labourer in Galurghat village in Gaya, regrets not getting Shuvam to Patna for the tetanus vaccine immediately after he stepped on a nail in the village. Shuvam was not administered the vaccine after birth either. The vaccine is not available in the village.

Back at the ward, a resident doctor said they expect more such patients. The health ministry had shut its public sector vaccine manufacturing units.

It was a move to protect business. The three units that got suspension letters (on January 15, 2008) were: Central Research Institute (CRI) in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh; BCGVaccine Laboratory (BCGVL) in Chennai and Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor, both in Tamil Nadu. An inspection, by a team comprising who and health ministry officials, found the units did not meet the good manufacturing practices of the who and pointedness sense for India. who certification helps procurement agencies like the UNICEF assess the quality of vaccines for immunization programmes the world over. About 60 per cent of the world’s vaccine supplies are from India.