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Vaccine supplies will be normalised: Anbumani

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: Admitting that the shortage of vaccines affected the Universal Immunisation Programme to “some extent in some States for some time,” Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday assured the Lok Sabha that supplies would be normalised by the end of the month.

Replying to a question, Dr. Ramadoss said the withdrawal of licence to three manufacturing units had hit the availability of vaccines, but efforts were being made to overcome the shortage.

He said licences to manufacture vaccines of the Central Research Institute, Kasauli; Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor, and BCG Lab, Chennai, were withdrawn as they failed to meet national standards.

The Minister said shortage of Diphtheria, Pertusis and Tetanus (DPT) and Diphtheria and Tetanus (DT) vaccines marginally affected the universal immunisation programme. The government had placed orders for supply of DPT and DT vaccines as per the annual requirement along with the buffer stock for the year 2008-09, he said. The supply of DPT vaccine started from September, while manufacturers began delivering DT vaccine from November.

Meanwhile, T.K. Rangarajan, Rajya Sabha member, has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention in the matter relating to the closure of the three units. He urged the Prime Minister to advise the Health Minister to lift the embargo on production of vaccines and allow these institutes to continue their “voyage in the realm of vaccine production.”

The letter said it was most unfortunate that the Ministry passed an order to stop production of vaccine in the three renowned institutions and instead decided to develop a vaccine park at Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs. 400 crore. It would become operational by 2012. The Ministry had not given any tangible explanation on how it was going to meet the exponential needs of vaccines in the interregnum of 4 years.

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