Published: August 21, 2010 18:00 IST | Updated: August 21, 2010 20:41 IST Lucknow, August 21, 2010 Four children die allegedly after being vaccinated http://www.thehindu.com/news/article586317.ece?css=print
PTI Four children died allegedly after they were administered measles and other vaccines during a government drive in Mohanlalganj area on the city outskirts, prompting the authorities to order an inquiry. “Four children in villages of Mannawa, Rampur and Khera died shortly after they were administered measles, BCG and Hepatitis B vaccines by a team of government doctors,” Director General, Family Welfare, S.P. Ram, who rushed to the affected area, said. “As it was vaccination day today, a team of government doctors were on a visit to 40 different centres of Mohanlalganj,” Ram said adding that deaths have been reported from three of these centres. The children in the area were motivated to take part in the vaccination drive by Anganwadi, Asha and Bal pushtahar volunteers. “The government has ordered an inquiry into the incident and more information would be known only later,” Ram said. ---------- Here's an Indian Express news item from 1999 "By its own admission now, ICMR has found that BCG neither protects adults nor does it immunise children." ..."Former ICMR director general V Ramalingaswami calls it the ``Great Madras failure'', since the BCG vaccination was initiated with great expectations in Tamil Nadu five decades ago." http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19991028/ige28025p.html After 50 years, ICMR finds BCG vaccine is just a scar on your arm PALLAVA BAGLA NEW DELHI, OCT 27: The only available vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) does not work! An extensive 15-year trial carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has come up with startling revelations for the Indian public health programme on TB. The ICMR has found that the BCG vaccine ``offered no overall protection in adults and a low level of overall protection in children.'' In other words, for the last 50 years, the public health service in India has been injecting crores of infants with painful doses of a seemingly worthless TB vaccine called BCG as part of its `Expanded Programme of Immunisation.' By its own admission now, ICMR has found that BCG neither protects adults nor does it immunise children. Doubts have always been there over the efficacy of the BCG vaccine but this is the first definitive study. The Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai followed up over two lakh people vaccinated with BCG for 15 years in the Chingleput district. They concluded, ``BCG offers no protectionagainst adult type of tuberculosis and consequently, it cannot be expected to reduce the transmission due to tuberculosis.'' Former ICMR director general V Ramalingaswami calls it the ``Great Madras failure'', since the BCG vaccination was initiated with great expectations in Tamil Nadu five decades ago. Incidentally, the United States stopped using BCG as a vaccine many years ago; this happened when the first doubts were raised. US public health experts found that no useful purpose was being achieved by giving its population a false sense of security and decided that the money spent on vaccinations was better spent on providing suitable drugs to TB patients. In light of the latest finding, the significant question is: Should BCG now even find place in the national immunisation programme? Says Ramalingaswami: ``We now need to seriously think on whether to continue BCG as part of the national programme.'' He says the time has come to ``reopen the discussion on whether it is wise or not to give BCG atall.'' Medical experts say fortunately, the BCG vaccine does no harm to the human body but since it is an injectable vaccine, it could very well play a role in the spread of serious needle-borne infections like Hepatitis B and even HIV. The new finding is being seen as a wake-up call to the Ministry of Health, given there is no alternative vaccine for TB yet and the disease is already assuming unmanageable proportions. The World Health Organisation described it as the `biggest killer' among adults in South-East Asia. Though TB is curable with the judicious use of antibiotics, about two billion people are estimated to be carriers of the disease. The WHO estimates that every year, about eight million new cases are added to the global burden of which 2-3 million succumb to TB. According to recent WHO estimates, India carries 25 per cent of the global burden of TB with 50-60 per cent of the population being carriers of the TB bug. In 1995 alone, India reported 1.2 million cases of TB. To add to themisery, the combination of AIDS and TB is lethal and India is now the capital of both diseases. Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
