Posts tagged ‘Vaccine’

15/05/2013

* Rotavirus: India unveils cheap Rotavac diarrhoea vaccine

Pharmaceuticals is one of India‘s advanced industries.

BBC: “Scientists in India have unveiled a new low-cost vaccine against a deadly virus that kills about half a million children around the world each year.File photo of Indian children suffering from diarrhoea

Rotavirus causes dehydration and severe diarrhoea and spreads through contaminated hands and surfaces and is rampant in Asia and Africa.

India says clinical trials show the new vaccine, Rotavac, can save the lives of thousands of children annually.

An Indian manufacturer said the vaccine would cost 54 rupees ($1; £0.65).

International pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Merck produce similar vaccines but each dose costs around 1,000 rupees.

“This is an important scientific breakthrough against rotavirus infections, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea, responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths of small children in India each year,” India’s Department of Biotechnology official K Vijay Raghavan said.

“The clinical results indicate that the vaccine, if licensed, could save the lives of thousands of children each year in India,” he added.

Rotavac will be made by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. The company said it could mass-produce tens of millions of doses after clearance is given, expected in eight or nine months.”

via BBC News – Rotavirus: India unveils cheap Rotavac diarrhoea vaccine.

See also – https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/indias-services/

13/04/2013

* India’s Great Polio Legacy

WSJ: “Hundreds of leading scientists are urging the world to finish the job on polio, declaring that the disease has never been closer to eradication and endorsing a new global plan to wipe it out within six years. India has proved an inspiration.

More than 400 signatories to this week’s declaration, hailing from 80 countries, believe polio eradication is achievable in large part because of the great gains India has made against the disease. Not long ago, experts said stopping polio in India was impossible, but we’ve just celebrated two years since the last case and continue to work hard to ensure that all children are vaccinated against the virus.

Polio once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children each year without regard to national borders. Now, it is endemic in only three countries.

The Scientific Declaration endorses a new global polio eradication plan provides a fully costed, realistic roadmap how to finish off polio. It applies lessons learned from India for reaching zero polio cases while simultaneously preventing re-importation of the disease and switching to a new vaccine that wipes out even the risk of vaccine-related polio.

As the rest of the world learns from India’s success, it is worth asking what else polio lessons can teach India. The country has the highest child mortality rate in the world; 1.66 million children under five die every year from preventable diseases. Innovations developed to eliminate polio offer India unprecedented opportunities to get other life-saving vaccines and health interventions to the people that need them most.

Measles could be the next disease on the hit-list. According to The Lancet medical journal, vaccines slashed measles deaths by 74% between 2000 and 2010, from 535,300 to 139,300. But India still accounts for nearly half of measles deaths.”

via India’s Great Polio Legacy – India Real Time – WSJ.

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