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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | SC notice on PIL seeking ban on ‘killer’ vaccine -Dhananjay Mahapatra

SC notice on PIL seeking ban on ‘killer’ vaccine -Dhananjay Mahapatra

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published Published on Sep 3, 2013   modified Modified on Sep 3, 2013
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a PIL alleging a sharp increase in infant deaths after administration of pentavalent vaccine, which replaced the tried and tested vaccines to fight five deadly diseases under the universal immunization programme (UIP).

PIL petitioner Yogesh Jain, a former pediatrician in AIIMS and now a public health physician at Jan Swasthya Sahyog in Bilaspur district, alleged a conspiracy in closing down of public sector units manufacturing the proven DPT (diptheria, pertusis, tetanus) vaccine in 2007 by the then health minister to clear the way for introduction of pentavalent vaccine.

A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjana P Desai said the PIL appeared to be well researched and issued notices to the ministry of health and family welfare, Drug Controller General of India and manufacturer of pentavalent vaccine Serum Institute of India. It asked the respondents to file in four weeks their responses to the PIL seeking an immediate ban on use of the new vaccine under UIP.

Jain's counsel Colin Gonsalves said, "The government of India decided to pre-empt the reopening of the PSUs and distribution of DPT at low prices by making an abrupt switch to the pentavalent vaccine (which is to immunize a child against DPT plus hepatitis B and hemeophils influenza type B or HIB).

"The strategy was to make out as if DPT was obsolete and was bound to be replaced by pentavalent vaccine. Any possibility of PSUs restarting DPT production was made redundant by ousting it from the public health system."

The petitioner said though other countries, both developed and developing, had banned the pentavalent vaccine and taken swift action in the face of infant deaths, the health ministry decided to launch this vaccine under UIP.

"To justify introduction of pentavalent vaccine in India, interested parties have made attempts to exaggerate the country's HIB and hepatitis B disease burden," Jain said and alleged that despite opposition from public health experts, the vaccine was launched in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in December 2011.

"Within days of introduction, the new vaccine resulted in the death of two babies in Kerala. Subsequently, 15 infants died from vaccine-related complication in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the year 2012," he alleged.

"Notwithstanding infant deaths and pending high court litigation regarding pentavalent, on April 16, 2012, the ministry of health and family welfare announced that it would introduce the pentavalent vaccine in five more states - Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry - by October 2013," the petitioner said.

"In clear violation of Noel Narayan recommendations, the ministry launched the vaccine in Haryana in December 2012 without analyzing its effects in Kerala and Tamil Nadu," Jain said and claimed that complications because of the vaccine claimed an infant's life in a Haryana village in January this year.

"The vaccine is banned in Canada, US, Europe, Australia, UK and Japan. In developing countries, the pentavalent vaccine has led to deaths in Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam," he said and claimed that the governments in Vietnam, Bhutan and Vietnam have discontinued the vaccine.


The Times of India, 3 September, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/SC-notice-on-PIL-seeking-ban-on-killer-vaccine/articleshow/22241222.cms


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