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Journalism of Courage
A new rotavirus vaccine developed in India may save tens of thousands of infant lives
Rotavac,a new rotavirus vaccine that has been entirely developed and tested in India,promises to save the lives of babies and toddlers around the world. While HIV and malaria get attention and resources,the most persistent dangers to young children,pneumonia and diarrhoea,are entirely preventable. Together,these serial killers are responsible for 29 per cent of the deaths of children under five. Rotavirus gastroenteritis,which causes the diarrhoea,can easily be combated by vaccination. It has been estimated that 4,50,000 lives could be saved in a year with the rotavirus vaccine,most of them in poorer parts of the world. According to the WHO,between 90,000 and 1,53,000 children in India alone die from rotavirus infection.
This vaccine is a tremendous achievement for the PPP model in public health,for the Indian scientific and public health community and their global partners. It has taken 28 years of patient work,after a non-pathogenic strain of the virus was discovered at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences,pushed along by the Indo-US Vaccine Action Program. This vaccine,produced from scratch,was the result of collaboration between public and private agencies across the world,including the Indian government,the National Institute of Immunology,the Gates Foundation,Indian company Bharat Biotech,the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention,and others. This kind of concerted global action,across public and private institutions,is necessary to frontally fight and subdue killers like diarrhoea,and other public health emergencies.
