The Union Health Ministry on Monday claimed it had identified hundreds of children who received contaminated polio vaccine in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana. As per the local media reports, police arrested the managing director of Bio-Med after routine testing which revealed it had made and shipped some 150,000 lots of oral polio vaccines, that contained the type 2 polio vaccine virus.
Although the health ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have stepped up surveillance, the shocking development may put India’s ‘Polio-free’ status at risk as the contamination can have very serious ramifications on public health.
“The contamination can have very serious ramifications on public health because it is tantamount to reintroducing into the community a virus that had been eradicated. The WHO and health authorities are keeping a close watch for any active strain of the virus in stool samples or in sewage,” a senior official said.
Out of the 1.5 lakh vials, nearly two-thirds were used, mostly in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana whereas the rest had been recalled, sources said.
As a counter-measure, the recipients of the contaminated vaccine would now be given a dosage of inactivated polio vaccine that is administered through an injection.
The Health Ministry, under its national immunization program, will also ensure that inactivated polio virus (IPV) injections are being administered to every child in the three states so that no child is missed, the official said.
Previously, batches of typhoid vaccines produced by Bio-Med were also found to be “not-of-standard quality”, according to a public notice by the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation, dated March 14, 2018.
