Following facts were reported by the Times of India quoting Health ministry reports on 11th October 2009,
India’s total death toll: 389
Total people infected with Swine Flu: 11,874
Total samples tested till date: 50,049
Most badly affected state: Maharashtra
What does WHO has to say?
“As of 4/October/2009 there have been over 375,000 lab confirmed cases of Pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 and over 4500 deaths reported to WHO.”
So applying simple mathematics here, India has contributed to about 8.5% of the total reported deaths around the world.
Is Prevention Better Than Cure?
It always is stupid! So needless to say that a vaccine that could prevent from getting the Swine Flu, is the need of the hour.
Developed countries of the world have been using regular Influenza Vaccines during flu season to prevent people from getting flu and dying.
Does India has a Swine flu Vaccine?
If you Google Swine flu vaccine and India, it comes up with millions of pages claiming that India is developing it’s indigenous vaccine and it would be available soon. How soon? God only knows. Four agencies that are in forefront of developing the vaccine earlier claimed that the vaccine would be available in September/October 2009 but the latest news is that it would not be available till March/April 2010.
So what can India do?
India’s Options:
1) Let Swine flu rule and people die.
2)Develop a Vaccine faster.
3)Import from a foreign country.
1) Well the first option doesn’t need any explanation, our authorities are pretty good at that.
2) Vaccine developing agencies have sort of let us down on this and have failed to quickly develop a vaccine as is evident.
3)Although it looks an attractive option, here is what WHO has to say in it’s briefing note:11,
“24 SEPTEMBER 2009 GENEVA -- Regulatory authorities have licensed pandemic vaccines in Australia, China and the United States of America, soon to be followed by Japan and several countries in Europe. The length of the approval process depends on factors such as each country's regulatory pathway, the type of vaccine being licensed, and the stage of manufacturers' readiness to submit appropriate information to regulatory authorities.”
It also says,
“These supplies will still be inadequate to cover a world population of 6.8 billion people in which virtually everyone is susceptible to infection by a new and readily contagious virus. Global manufacturing capacity for influenza vaccines is limited, inadequate and not readily augmented.”
It also says,
“ Many affluent countries have previously contracted with manufacturers to obtain sufficient vaccine supplies to cover their entire populations. However, most low- and middle-income countries lack the financial resources to compete for an early share of limited supplies. Vaccine supplies in these countries will largely depend on donations from manufacturers and other countries.”
I sincerely hope that India is amongst those ‘affluent countries’ who have the money to book the vaccines in advance. One of the basis for this hope is the statement from the ICMR Director which was quoted in the Times of India saying that some of the foreign manufacturers have agreed to do bridging studies so as to find out how Vaccine works in the Indian population so I am guessing that Indian Government has made some kind of an arrangement with these vaccine providers, otherwise we are at the mercy of donations from the affluent countries.
Ministry of Health, India webpage dedicated to Swine Flu speaks nothing about the vaccine though.
Thanks to Quiplash for the photograph.
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