H1N1
India in Vaccine Wilderness
The Americans, the French, Chinese, Koreans all seem to be on schedule as far as development of Swine Flu Vaccines to help acquire immunity to the H1N1 Swine Flu virus is concerned. India however, seems to be left out of the race to develop an effective vaccine even as the virus continues to spread in ever larger geographical areas of the country.
Although there are as many as three companies that are developing the vaccine within India, there is no indication as to when the vaccines will actually be available for use of the inoculation of Indians and if, as some reports indicate the vaccines will come out in May 2010, that may well be too late.
There is also no resolution to the issue of import of vaccines until such time as an indigenous vaccine is developed, although the government has indicated that they would prefer to use Indian vaccines rather than import. The talks between the government of India MNCs such as Glaxo are on, to try and determine the efficacy of the vaccine in Indian populations, however there seems to be no resolution of the matter as yet. The government wants that there should be testing carried out in India, but the companies want that there should be some assurance of actual buying orders before this is done.
Meanwhile the death toll in the country has climbed to 145 according to this Economic Times report. Seven people, including two each in Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka, died due to swine flu Wednesday. The largest number of deaths resulting from the H1N1 Swine Flu virus are still from Maharashtra, which is 67. The total number of people affected by the virus in the state has gone up to 1,885.
The total number of people affected with influenza A(H1N1) in the country is now up to 5,435. 214 fresh cases were reported yesterday; of those 69 were reported from Tamil Nadu. The other states from where fresh cases were reported were Delhi (36), Karnataka (35), Maharashtra (28), Haryana (19), Andhra Pradesh (11) and Uttarakhand (5).
Related Posts:
