Yellow fever blues

If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his delegates had had to fly to Uganda a few months earlier instead of next week, the Health Ministry would have been in a spot. The yellow fever vaccine, mandatory for all those visiting African countries, was in short supply then. The situation is under control now, with the ministry officials in a position to import the doses from Brazil and Senegal. The PM and his team can now leave safely, say relieved Health officials. While the central research institute at Kasoli has a production capacity of 35,000 vaccines, there is a big demand and the Health Ministry procures 55,000 doses from Brazil and Senegal. The vaccines were in short supply this year since more people than expected travelled to African countries.