No cause for worry on polio vaccine contamination, says Karnataka health department
BENGALURU: Recent reports of contamination of 1.5 lakh Type-2 oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) vials, manufactured by Ghaziabad-based Biomed company has caused confusion and panic among parents in Karnataka. There were several WhatsApp messages being circulated which said ‘Do not administer polio vaccinations to your kids’ and also Facebook messages warning parents about the same. “I am extremely scared as I have been giving all polio vaccinations to my two-year-old baby. I thought it would protect my child from polio, but after these reports, I am watching every move of my child in anxiety,” said Chaitra Gowda from Indiranagar in Bengaluru.
“On a general direction from the central government we have been asked to keep all vaccines from Biomed in abeyance and in cold chain. Karnataka has received three batches of vaccines from Biomed which contain more than 50,000 vials in each batch, but not of the batch in question. The OPV vaccine which is available and used in the state is safe and is administered during routine immunisation and all Pulse polio rounds. We are currently using the vaccine from another company and administering it. It is absolutely safe and the health risk to the child is nil,” S Pushparaj, director, health and family welfare department, said.
He said messages on social media and by word of mouth, asking parents not to vaccinate their children, do the rounds much faster than government’s response, “I request parents to continue to administer OPV and not to panic. There is definitely no harm.”
Dr Prabhu Gowda, Deputy Director, child health, said, “Karnataka has not received a single complaint of any such contamination. Parents need not panic or fear. Those batches have not been administered in Karnataka,” he said.Explaining why it is not dangerous, Dr Prabhu Gowda said India used to initially administer OPV trivalent vaccine with strains 1, 2 and 3 as part of the national immunisation schedule as well as the Pulse polio campaigns. On September 20, 2016, the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (GCC) concluded that wild poliovirus type-2 (WPV2) has been eradicated worldwide and removed type-2 strain from all vaccines.
Meanwhile, Dr Gopi Krishna, a paediatrician, said the weakened virus in the vaccine itself does not pose a threat to the children who have received doses from these vials, since it is designed to trigger an immune response. “The weakend virus is not going to harm recipients,” he said.
PANIC MAY AFFECT POLIO-FREE STATUS
Officials and doctors feel that spreading panic will definitely affect the polio-free status which India secured from WHO since 2014. The last case of wild polio virus type-2 in the country was in 1999. However, India continues to maintain a highly sensitive surveillance system for polio. All cases of paralysis onset in children up to 15 years are picked up by the polio surveillance network. Each of these cases is followed up and stool samples tested for polio virus in WHO-accredited laboratories.