Vaccination in India
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Vaccination in India includes the use of vaccines in Indian public health and the place of vaccines in Indian society, policy, and research.
Vaccination policy
[edit]India's Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) began in 1985. The UIP covers:[1][2][3]
- BCG vaccine for Tuberculosis
- DPT vaccine for Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus
- OPV vaccine for Poliomyelitis
- Measles vaccine/ Measles and Rubella vaccine
- Hepatitis B vaccine
- TT vaccine
- Pentavalent vaccine for Hib, DPT, Hep B
- JE vaccine (localised)
- Rotavirus vaccine
- PCV for Streptococcus pneumoniae
Available vaccines
[edit]Coronavirus
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/BBV152.jpg/220px-BBV152.jpg)
India has been vaccinating against coronavirus since 16 January 2021.
Rotavirus
[edit]India's implementation of the rotavirus vaccine in its Universal Immunisation Programme has saved many children's lives.[4]
Nearly every child in every country globally experiences at least one rotavirus infection in early childhood.[5] However, in India, children are more likely to get this infection multiple times, and children in India are more likely to die from it.[5]
A rotavirus vaccine is available.[5] This vaccine is highly effective and has been preventing half of the severe rotovirus diarrhea cases which would occur in India otherwise.[5] Scientists in India produce vaccines for this disease which are special for India only.[5]
HPV
[edit]As of 2019 the Indian government is scaling up efforts to promote the HPV vaccine for girls to prevent cervical cancer.[6] This effort began in 2008 with the introduction of one sort of vaccine and in 2018 the government began providing a newer version of the vaccine.[6]
Respiratory syncytial virus
[edit]Cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in India mainly occur in North India in the winter.[7] This virus causes lower respiratory tract infection.[7]
Safety
[edit]India, like many other countries, uses the World Health Organization system for reporting and classifying "Adverse Events following Immunization".[8] The government agency which manages this program is responsible for both increasing safety and giving an explanation if a problem occurs.[9] Between 2012 and 2016, the system identified about 1000 cases.[10] Researchers responded by examining these cases to improve safety.[10]
History
[edit]In 1802 a 3-year-old girl in Mumbai received a smallpox vaccine, making her the first person to take a vaccine in India.[11] The British government claimed success and began to block use of the previous technology variolation to only recommend vaccination instead.[11] In hindsight, the situation was complicated because vaccines were the long-term solution but way that the British Raj introduced them was disruptive to how people accessed traditional health services, and to government operations, and in religion.[12]
Society and culture
[edit]The pharmaceutical industry in India is strong and has a reputation for producing good vaccines for sale and export.[13] Typically when a country makes vaccines, that means that local people have good access to them.[13] For various reasons, India has both a strong vaccine manufacturing sector and also people in India, especially children, have higher rates of missing vaccines than in comparable countries.[13]
Various commentators have given different reasons for why India has less vaccination.[13] One historic reason is that India has contributed intensely to encouraging vaccines for smallpox and polio at the expense of being able to promote other vaccines.[13] Another explanation could be that the Indian government underspends on vaccines in general.[13] Somehow India's population does not demand vaccines, which could be a result of lack of public health education.[13] India also has pseudoscience activists promoting vaccine hesitancy.[13]
Some research has suggested that community engagement (CE) may be especially important to consider in supporting vaccination in India. This may include "[efforts that are] focused on upstream relationships (bidirectional), fostering trust, transparent communication, capacity building, and political will to ensure such approaches."[14] There appears to be overarching support for vaccination CE among decisionmakers in India, but there remain many structural and social barriers to moving forward on this front.[15]
Vaccines in research
[edit]Dengue
[edit]There has been a dengue vaccine available since 2015.[16] However, this vaccine is not effective in many cases.[16] The Indian government participates in the global research to develop an effective general use dengue vaccine.[16]
Kala azar
[edit]There is research for a kala azar (Leishmaniasis) vaccine in India, but none exists.
Special populations
[edit]Foreign tourists visiting India contribute significantly to India's economy.[17] People who visit India from countries with different diseases may not have vaccines to protect against infections in India.[17] When tourists do get an infection in India, often that infection could have been prevented with a vaccine.[17][18]
The World Health Organization recommends different vaccines for tourists in different circumstances.[17] Those vaccines include diphtheria vaccine, tetanus vaccine, hepatitis A vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine, oral polio vaccine, typhoid vaccine, varicella vaccine, Japanese encephalitis, meningococcal vaccine, rabies vaccine, and yellow fever vaccine.[17]
References
[edit]- ^ Lahariya, Chandrakant (April 2014). "A brief history of vaccines & vaccination in India". The Indian Journal of Medical Research. 139 (4): 491–511. ISSN 0971-5916. PMC 4078488. PMID 24927336.
- ^ Madhavi, Yennapu (May 2005). "Vaccine Policy in India". PLOS Medicine. 2 (5): e127. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020127. ISSN 1549-1277. PMC 1140944. PMID 15916465.
- ^ "National Immunization Schedule under Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), India". The Pharmapedia. 2021-02-27. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
- ^ Malik, A; Haldar, P; Ray, A; Shet, A; Kapuria, B; Bhadana, S; Santosham, M; Ghosh, RS; Steinglass, R; Kumar, R (16 September 2019). "Introducing rotavirus vaccine in the Universal Immunization Programme in India: From evidence to policy to implementation". Vaccine. 37 (39): 5817–5824. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.07.104. PMC 6996154. PMID 31474519.
- ^ a b c d e Bergman, Hanna; Henschke, Nicholas; Hungerford, Daniel; Pitan, Femi; Ndwandwe, Duduzile; Cunliffe, Nigel; Soares-Weiser, Karla (2021-11-17). "Vaccines for preventing rotavirus diarrhoea: vaccines in use". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2021 (11): CD008521. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008521.pub6. ISSN 1469-493X. PMC 8597890. PMID 34788488.
- ^ a b Sankaranarayanan, Rengaswamy; Basu, Partha; Kaur, Prabhdeep; Bhaskar, Rajesh; Singh, Gurinder Bir; Denzongpa, Phumzay; Grover, Rajesh K; Sebastian, Paul; Saikia, Tapan; Oswal, Kunal; Kanodia, Rishav; Dsouza, Amantia; Mehrotra, Ravi; Rath, Goura Kishor; Jaggi, Viniita; Kashyap, Sundram; Kataria, Ishu; Hariprasad, Roopa; Sasieni, Peter; Bhatla, Neerja; Rajaraman, Preetha; Trimble, Edward L; Swaminathan, Soumya; Purushotham, Arnie (November 2019). "Current status of human papillomavirus vaccination in India's cervical cancer prevention efforts". The Lancet Oncology. 20 (11): e637–e644. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30531-5. PMID 31674322. S2CID 207818684.
- ^ a b Broor, S; Parveen, S; Maheshwari, M (2018). "Respiratory syncytial virus infections in India: Epidemiology and need for vaccine". Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology. 36 (4): 458–464. doi:10.4103/ijmm.IJMM_19_5. PMID 30880691.
- ^ Singh, AK; Wagner, AL; Joshi, J; Carlson, BF; Aneja, S; Boulton, ML (24 July 2017). "Application of the revised WHO causality assessment protocol for adverse events following immunization in India". Vaccine. 35 (33): 4197–4202. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.06.027. PMID 28648545. S2CID 4547302.
- ^ Joshi, J; Das, MK; Polpakara, D; Aneja, S; Agarwal, M; Arora, NK (February 2018). "Vaccine Safety and Surveillance for Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) in India". Indian Journal of Pediatrics. 85 (2): 139–148. doi:10.1007/s12098-017-2532-9. PMID 29170922. S2CID 4252838.
- ^ a b Singh, AK; Wagner, AL; Joshi, J; Carlson, BF; Aneja, S; Boulton, ML (June 2018). "Causality assessment of serious and severe adverse events following immunization in India: a 4-year practical experience". Expert Review of Vaccines. 17 (6): 555–562. doi:10.1080/14760584.2018.1484285. PMID 29865876. S2CID 46929595.
- ^ a b Lahariya, Chandrakant (1 April 2014). "A brief history of vaccines & vaccination in India". Indian Journal of Medical Research. 139 (4): 491–511. ISSN 0971-5916. PMC 4078488. PMID 24927336.
- ^ Bhattacharya, Sanjoy; Harrison, Mark; Worboys, Michael (2005). Fractured states : smallpox, public health and vaccination policy in British India 1800-1947. Orient Longman. ISBN 978-8125028666.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Laxminarayan, Ramanan; Ganguly, Nirmal Kumar (June 2011). "India's Vaccine Deficit: Why More Than Half Of Indian Children Are Not Fully Immunized, And What Can—And Should—Be Done". Health Affairs. 30 (6): 1096–1103. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0405. PMID 21653963.
- ^ Dutta, Tapati; Meyerson, Beth E.; Agley, Jon; Barnes, Priscilla A.; Sherwood-Laughlin, Catherine; Nicholson-Crotty, Jill (December 2020). "A qualitative analysis of vaccine decision makers' conceptualization and fostering of 'community engagement' in India". International Journal for Equity in Health. 19 (1): 185. doi:10.1186/s12939-020-01290-5. ISSN 1475-9276. PMC 7574459. PMID 33081792.
- ^ Dutta, Tapati; Agley, Jon; Meyerson, Beth E.; Barnes, Priscilla A.; Sherwood-Laughlin, Catherine; Nicholson-Crotty, Jill (2021-06-25). Borrow, Ray (ed.). "Perceived enablers and barriers of community engagement for vaccination in India: Using socioecological analysis". PLOS ONE. 16 (6): e0253318. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1653318D. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0253318. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 8232440. PMID 34170920.
- ^ a b c Swaminathan, S; Khanna, N (July 2019). "Dengue vaccine development: Global and Indian scenarios". International Journal of Infectious Diseases. 84S: S80–S86. doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2019.01.029. PMID 30684747.
- ^ a b c d e Verma, R; Khanna, P; Chawla, S (2015). "Recommended vaccines for international travelers to India". Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. 11 (10): 2455–7. doi:10.4161/hv.29443. PMC 4635693. PMID 25483659.
- ^ Mehta, B; Jindal, H; Bhatt, B; Kumar, V; Singh Choudhary, S (2014). "Vaccination for safe travel to India". Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. 10 (4): 1111–3. doi:10.4161/hv.27234. PMC 4896562. PMID 24284411.