The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Boosters, a shot in the arm for adults in need of vaccination

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Monday, Sep 29, 2008
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Boosters, a shot in the arm for adults in need of vaccination

Special Correspondent

The clinic will also offer travel-related healthcare

To target the segment of immunisation market not covered by government’s health spend
The market for optional vaccines, not funded by the government, is worth Rs. 400 crore in India

CHENNAI: For the growing number of adults who require vaccination, a new immunisation clinic, named Boosters, will come as a shot in the arm.

K. Chandramohan and his entire family were recently vaccinated for hepatitis A and B as well as typhoid.

“When there is prevention available, why should we take a chance? As the years go on, it will help to reduce both physical suffering and financial costs,” Dr. Chandramohan says.

Preena and Deepak Samuel are representative of another group who need adult vaccination. When travelling to Eritrea on work, they were forced to criss-cross the city to get their mandatory yellow fever vaccination.

“We went to the Kings Institute at Guindy, and found out that they administered the vaccination only on Fridays. So we had to go to the Port Trust Hospital, which is the only other place in the city which gives the vaccination,” says Ms. Preena.

The Boosters clinic is aimed at ending all the hassle by offering a one-stop shop for adult immunisation and travel-related healthcare. The brainchild of V. Ramasubramanian, senior consultant in infectious diseases and travel medicine at Apollo Hospitals, Boosters is targeting the small, but growing, segment of the immunisation market that is not covered by the government’s health spend, which focusses on mandatory immunisation for children.

“The market for optional vaccines, those not funded by the government, is now worth Rs. 400 crore in India,” said Anjana Narayanan, Director of Vaccines for MSD Pharmaceuticals, speaking at the launch of Boosters website (boostersindia.com) here on Sunday.

“These are people who are not just looking to sustain their families, they want a better quality of life, especially the aging population.”

“Cover more people”

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, who inaugurated the site, said the growing market for such optional vaccines was important in light of the fact that 80 per cent of the healthcare spend in India was not sponsored by the government. A clinic with a concept as important as Boosters needed to reach out to more people over time.

Vaccines to prevent typhoid, hepatitis, chickenpox, influenza and pneumococcal infections are among those being administered at the clinic, while vaccines against cervical cancer and herpes zoster will arrive soon.

Dr. Ramasubramanian said there was a lacuna in travel medicine. The Boosters travel clinic will offer vaccination for yellow fever and other diseases endemic to the destinations of today’s global traveller, as well as comprehensive pre-and post-travel health advice.

With corporate travel on the rise, Boosters is looking to partner companies to offer on-site immunisation for their employees.

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