50 lakh vs 3.4 cr: Vaccine drive trips on numbers

The drive is also stuck on the vaccine to be used: mouse brain or tissue culture, which is yet to be approved by WHO.

In their presentation to the Ministry, experts feel that mouse brain vaccines might not be available in large stocks. They are also worried whether the global tenders floated for mouse brain vaccines would get the desired response.

Tissue culture vaccine is a better option, they say. ‘‘One mouse brain can produce maximum two doses. Raising colonies of so many mice and killing them is a very crude method,’’ said an official. On the flip side, tissue culture vaccine is available in South Korea and China but has not been certified by WHO or tested on Indians, said Dr M K Bhan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology. ‘‘The experts are not sure about its efficacy among Indian population.’’

The mouse brain vaccine option for 2006 works out to Rs 256 million, while tissue culture vaccine bill would be Rs 85 million—if the government decides to manufacture them.

But the problem is India may not be able to manufacture vaccines at such magnitude. Import also seems impossible as ‘‘all major global manufactures like Biken in Japan and GPO in Thailand have stopped production of the mouse brain vaccine and are in the process of upgrading to newer JE vaccines,’’ the official said.

The Government has asked WHO and ICMR for their opinion on tissue culture vaccine import. According to studies quoted in Weekly Epidemiological Record of WHO (July 15), the efficacy of tissue culture vaccine is 80 to 90 percent.

The Ministry of Science and Technology, meanwhile, is developing a tissue culture vaccine.‘‘Our…vaccine is going through clinical trials. It can take more than three years before it is in market. We can’t wait till then,’’ said Dr Bhan.

While 60 per cent of JE cases come from UP, experts say other areas cannot be ignored. ‘‘The death rate from the disease is still very high and about 20 to 50 per cent children die,’’ the official added.