Setback for India's polio-eradication program - The Pharma Letter

Setback for India's polio-eradication program - The Pharma Letter

Setback for India's polio-eradication program - The Pharma Letter

Posted: 29 May 2019 03:08 AM PDT

Several doses of an oral polio vaccine made by a government-owned firm in India have failed quality tests.

In what is being termed a major setback to India's polio eradication program, the Central Drugs Laboratory in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, declared 16 batches (30,000 vials) manufactured by Bibcol (Bharat Immunological and Biologicals Corporation Limited) as 'substandard'.

The public sector undertaking supplies vaccines to the government's polio eradication program. Approximately 90 million doses of the polio vaccine are required for a follow-up program slated for June.

In the follow-up round held in areas that are at highest risk of a polio outbreak, doses of the oral polio vaccine are given free to children under the age of five years.

There are five major manufacturers of the bivalent vaccine in India: Bio-Med, Bharat Biotech International, Panacea Biotec, Bibcol and Mumbai-based Haffkine Bio Pharma.

Last September, strains of polio virus Type 2 were found in vaccines made by Ghaziabad-based Bio-Med, and 150,000 oral polio vials were found contaminated.

Though an enquiry has been instituted in the case of Bibcol's contamination, officials said that, given multiple suppliers of the polio vaccine there was enough buffer stock available and would be used for the follow-up program.

7 schools in Pakistan sealed for hysteria against polio vaccine - The Hans India

Posted: 30 May 2019 03:18 AM PDT

Seven private schools in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province have been sealed for inciting mass hysteria against the polio drive and discouraging parents from cooperating with vaccination teams.

Attempts to eradicate the crippling disease have been seriously hampered by deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years by militants, who oppose the drives, claiming the polio drops cause infertility.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government found the management of these schools guilty of spreading hate against polio vaccination, Babar Bin Atta, Prime Minister Imran Khan's Focal Person on Polio Eradication Programme, said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The schools were responsible for "inciting innocent parents to violence resulting in attacks on polio teams and mass hysteria," he said.

On April 22, protesters burnt down a health facility in Peshawar following reports that multiple children have allegedly fallen sick after consuming anti-polio vaccine.

The violence led to the suspension of the anti-polio drive, involving 260,000 polio workers, and post-campaign evaluation of the Pakistan government.

The campaign aimed at administering polio drops to 39 million children under five years of age.

Officials believe the situation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is turning out to be alarming since 10 of the total 15 polio cases have been reported from the province this year, the Express Tribune reported.

Atta had in a letter to provincial authorities earlier this month, said the current situation needed to be dealt efficiently and aggressively through collective efforts by all stakeholders.

However, the main responsibility fell on the shoulders of respective district management, he maintained.

Attacks on immunisation teams have claimed 68 lives since December 2012. Earlier this month, member of a polio monitoring team was gunned down on Monday by a man after a verbal brawl during a campaign at a village near Pak-Afghan border.

In January 2014, three workers were killed while in late 2012, five workers including four female workers were killed in Qayyumabad area.

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