We are deeply saddened by the recent catastrophe in Burma. To add to the misery of the helpless Burmese people, the Burmese military rulers are doing their best to sabotage international aid operations. From the looks of it, this thing is not going to pan out well. Expect deadly spillovers.Anyway.
You must have noticed that TOI has started a Chennai edition. For the past few days, we noticed a few of similar stories [google search] out of Chennai and elsewhere:
MUMBAI: Even as health officials investigate the death of two children after they were administered Hepatitis B and DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccines, TOI has learnt of one more incident in which a two-month-old died this week, this time after taking the BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guerin) vaccine given to prevent childhood tuberculosis.
DHARMAPURI: Amid rising concern over baby vaccines, a 3-month-old baby boy died at Kambainallur village here this morning, 10 days after he was given the triple antigen or DTP and Hepatitis B shots. [..] vaccine from the Kambainallur PHC for analysis to rule out contamination.
Dharmapuri district Collector, Amudha, told The Times of India that 70 children were given the vaccine from the batch of five. And none of the other children developed any complications.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India has recalled over four million doses of a measles vaccine supplied by a south Indian drug manufacturer after four children died following inoculation with the drug, reports said Friday. "All state governments have been instructed to stop use of the measles vaccine manufactured by the Indian Immunological Limited until further orders," Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Further supplies from the manufacturer have also been halted, he said.
An Indian minister expressed concern that the development could jeopardise India's larger immunisation efforts, sometimes beset by rumours about the safety of the injections. In the past, India's attempts to eradicate polio have been delayed after some Islamic clerics spread rumours the vaccines would harm Muslim children.
HYDERABAD: A four-month-old boy K. Aravind died allegedly within hours of administration of vaccine at a Government medical camp at Sanathangar on Saturday.The Sanathnagar police registered a case of suspicious death under section 174 of Criminal Procedure Code following a complaint from the victim’s parents.
These looked pretty odd. First of all, there is no easy stats available on how many babies were administered the vaccine vs. how many died, if there is an increasing trend, if the deaths were unambiguously attributable to the vaccine itself or were the babies suffering from other conditions. But the key thing is that the media is very strongly suggesting that the vaccines are to be blamed. The Health Minister himself is making statements fanning the fire of suspicion.
The death of even one baby would be tragic but this is a particularly sensitive case. If rumors spread before there is credible evidence, it will create havoc for the future health of millions of babies. It took decades of efforts to get Indian mothers to get their babies vaccinated, especially the poorest section. It will only take a few irresponsible and malicious rumor to destroy this trust.
We didn't think any more of the matter then, except to reflect that Dr. Ramadoss had earlier blamed UP and Bihar folks for spreading Polio in Maharshtra. He didn't have the scrotum to say which group of people from UP and Bihar though.
The mystery gradually unfolded as we read the following article:
A Chennai-based private company, owned by a close associate of Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, was granted a Rs 14-crore bank loan for starting production of vaccines just two weeks before the Health Ministry banned vaccine production by three Central public sector undertakings (PSUs).This has been going on for a while. As it happens, in India, a lot of vaccine is produced by PSU units. The units have been under constant scanner from the WHO, which claims they do not meet standards. Now, we are no big fans of public sector units, but up until now there were no issues with the product. As a matter of fact, the units failed only in the documentation part of the standards, while doing a pretty good job in process and production. After all, the products were administered to hundreds of millions of babies, perhaps many of the readers of this blog too.
Ramadoss ordered the closure of vaccine production by three PSUs citing a June 2007 WHO report, which claimed that these units were using redundant technology. BCG Vaccine Lab (Chennai), Pasteur Institute (Coonoor) and Central Research Institute of Kasauli were asked to close down production on January 22. Incidentally, the private company -- Green Signal Bio Pharma -- received Rs 14 crore as loan from Union Bank of India, Chennai, for starting production of vaccines on December 27, 2007.
As bank guarantee, the private company hypothecated its vials and other products, for which it had entered into a supply contract with BCG Vaccine Lab, Chennai, a PSU under Health Ministry. This shows that the PSU facilitated procurement of the loan for a private competitor.
It is well known in Tamil Nadu's political circles that Ramadoss and the Green Signal Bio Pharma owners are close. The company's chairman and managing director, P Sundaraparipooranan, is a politician-turned-businessman. The company was registered in November 2005 but it decided to get into vaccine production only in December 2007, when Ramadoss banned the three Central PSUs. [link]
Dr. Ramadoss, who didn't make a peep from 2004-07 suddenly shows great concern for vaccine quality in '08. Well, he was too busy trying to oust Dr. Venugopal. Almost simultaneously, the secular media starts singing the vaccine death chorus. Meanwhile Ramadoss' cronies get lucrative contracts, health ministry initiated bank loans etc. PSUs, which have been producing vaccine for Indian babies for decades are shut down all of a sudden.
The funny thing is, India still imports a lot of vaccine from China and as you know, China does not believe in inspection by the WHO.
4 comments:
Truly sad for Natural Cataclysm in Burma...
That Ramadoss guy has been busy n intrigued with his campaign against "Smoking and drinking scenes in movies"
Mr Pyarelal said...
"If an actor is playing the role of a crook, how can you expect a devotional song to be picturised on him, without a cigarette or alcohol in his hand? I think that will limit the creativity of the writer or director," said
:)
The Ramadoss guy should get vaccinated with some potent thing which enables Adults to focus their energies on relevant issues, if it is available.
-Anonymous Bloop
Our union health minister is showing strong signs of deteriorating mental health. It's time his mental efficacy be examined by another health professional.
Why do we always get such leaders? It's very frustrating & infuriating.
They broke the same story in Jaya TV. And interestingly many people interviewed in that news article quoted "THE PIONEER". But nobody says anything about Chinese imported vaccines.
vaccines are a big issue. Glad you collected all news of recent infant deaths after vaccinations.
There are three issues with vaccinations -
1) possible side effects of vaccines that may affect even a tiny percentage of those injected
2) possibility that genuine fear of the proven side effects (or irresponsible fear mongering) will prevent more people from vaccinating, thus causing diseases.
I suspect the media in India is not highlighting the deaths after vaccinations because to do so can be easily labelled as 'irresponsible fear mongering that puts our children at risks of deadly diseases'. This would work the same way 'sickularism' works.
3) Efficacy of the vaccines themselves, proved in field trials.
Side effects of vaccines, particularly those linked to use of mercury or aluminium or egg protein in the vaccines, is a serious subject. That should call for very serious scientific study. Even if a micro minority of the children can get allergic reactions to the egg protein or neurological disorders due to mercury, those should be researched. But some of the facts from the last twenty, thirty years give sufficient causes for fear on that front.
There was a case in UK where a medical researcher, Andrew Wakefield, suspected that MMR (combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. this was probably the vaccine in Tamil Nadu though reports merely say measles) was causing autism. He proposed to do a specific medical procedure from a group of afflicted children. Three manufacturers - Glaxo, Merck and Aventis - went to court and obtained injunctions preventing him from doing this study. This happened repeatedly.
The doctor was accused of scare mongering, even after the doctor openly said he was not against vaccinations and that he preferred separate vaccinations rather than one combined MMR vaccine, pending a study of affected patients. There are some details on this case at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1042597.ece?print=yes&randnum=1210602188427
It is a 'scientific' surprise that pharma companies with multi billion dollar profits and several millions in research budgets will want to prevent a medical study,and not offer any alternative study either. At the same time, they villified this doctor because he represented the children who were also in a class action suit.
There is a allergic reaction called anaphylactic reaction that can arise from some components used in vaccines, including animal serum or egg protein. This can lead to death within minutes due to shock. The infants in TN died within minutes. Can there be tests for allergy before injecting, like with penicillin?
Next is the issue of efficacy. There is a background to the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis that most may not know - this vaccine never had a successful field trial before it was promoted by WHO for world wide use. The only field trial for the efficacy of this vaccine was done in Tamil Nadu, due to the efforts of Rajaji - that good old evil brahmin. The field trial was abandoned, but the results collected thru the trial were not positive for the vaccine. See this article from the US center for disease control (CDC) - http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/PrevGuid/p0000192/p0000192.asp
"In 1969, a large controlled trail[sic] was begun in Madras (Chingleput) in south India to estimate the efficacy of two strains of freeze-dried BCG vaccine and two different doses. After 15 years of follow-up, the risk of sputum- positive pulmonary TB in persons vaccinated with BCG was NOT LOWER THAN that in persons given placebo" (emphasis added)
'Not lower than' - is pretty scientific way of saying it.
Flu vaccine (for common flu) is among the latest - this is particularly convenient for the pharma companies because there are a lot of flu causing viruses. So every year they get WHO to list three 'likely' viruses that will hit that year, and manufacture vaccines for that year. These vaccines, thus, offer protection for only a year and have to be taken every year. The famed flu shot.
How many in US or europe will drive to clinics for this flu shot for the fear of FLU? how many die a year due to common FLU (not counting the chronically ill who have other conditions that complicate flu)? How hard is a flu attack anyway? This vaccine also became part of the mandated shots for infants. They keep lowering the age of infants all the time - started with one year, nine months, six months, now suggestions even for infants under six months! Is it possible that it is easier to scare anxious parents into getting this shot for their kids than scaring adults into getting this shot every year? also considering the possible side effects of this shot are also 'flu-like' symptoms?
And this flu vaccine is now also being used by doctors in India for infants - typically the european brands, which specifically say they are based on WHO inputs for europe for that season.
Let us not even talk of AIDS and bird flu. How many studies were there claiming AIDS hot spots in India? How many 'star nights'? And what is the count of actual human deaths due to the famed bird flu?
The US has a claims process for vaccine related injuries since the Reagan time. The CDC and drug companies have been denying any association of vaccines, including in the case of mercury and autism, but they have also been paying thru this claims mechanism - payouts totaling 1.7 billion USD so far.
And it gets funnier when you learn that this pay-outs are coming out of a excise tax levied on the vaccines. Tax, paid by consumers who pay for this vaccines, including parents of those afflicted. No cut in profits of pharma majors even as they publicly deny any risks, and thwart attempts at proper medical studies thru court injunctions.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_he_me/autism_court_case;_ylt=AgjwhD19AouCRdPwPnmWmyWs0NUE
And it can get even funnier when you realize that the FUD spread on traditional medicines, including ayurveda, is that they use heavy metals including mercury!
Post a Comment