Team Herald
PANJIM: Amidst rumours of the polio vaccine being contaminated, the State government on Thursday has clarified that Goa is not having the said contaminated vaccine and that the health department has been in touch with the government of India.
The outrage happened when a sewage sample from Mumbai tested positive for the second strain of polio virus in August. The discovery of traces of P2 strain in the environment raised alarm bells as this type was not only eradicated globally in 1999, but its use in vaccine was also discontinued in April 2016.
A circular was issued on September 11 to stop the use of vaccines manufactured by Ghaziabad-based Biomed, which supplied oral polio vaccine (OPV) to Maharashtra and UP. It is suspected that their bivalent OPV, supposed to contain weakened P1 and P3 strains of polio, was perhaps contaminated by the eradicated P2 strain.
“Goa is not having the said contaminated vaccine. The Health Department has been in constant touch with the Government of India.” said OSD to Health Minister Dr Rajnananda Desai
However, Health Secretary, Ashok Kumar said, “We are in process of verifying if we received vaccine from that company. We can comment only after verification is completed.”
India was certified polio-free in March 2014 and continues to be so. India continues to remain vigilant against all three types of polioviruses. The last polio case due to wild poliovirus in the country was detected on 13 January 2011.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a press release said that there have been reports in a section of the print media mentioning that bivalent oral polio vaccine supplied by a particular manufacturer had some quality issues.
“Indian government stands committed to ensure safety of vaccines. As a part of efforts to maintain high immunity against all polioviruses, India provides inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and bOPV to all infants across the country under routine immunization to ensure vaccination of all children, effective campaigns have been undertaken.
Further, it states that as per the advice of the India Expert Advisory Group, India continues to conduct mass vaccination campaigns against polio, using bOPV to maintain high immunity against polio. Two nationwide and one sub-national pulse polio campaign have already been conducted in 2018.
“A team of MoHFW, DCGI, ICMR and WHO are continuously monitoring the situation. Government of India is committed as always to ensure that all vaccines used in the programme are safe and effective.” the circular states
