This story is from March 2, 2016

No injectable polio vaccine in market

Demand for 30,000 vials: dealers' body
No injectable polio vaccine in market
Key Highlights
• Acute shortage of injectable polio vaccine in the private sector is bothering paediatricians and urban parents in Uttar Pradesh.
The crisis, believes All India Vaccine Dealers Association, has been triggered by bulk procurement by state government for the National Polio Immunisation Programme.
According to general secretary Sanjiv Pal Singh, "Not a single vial of the injectable polio vaccine is available against demand for at least 30,000 vials as companies have diverted supply to state government."
In November 2015, UP government integrated injectable polio vaccine in the national programme for elimination of polio.
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Under this, polio vaccine shots are given to newborn when they complete 14 weeks.
Principal secretary health Arvind Kumar said: "We had no idea about the shortage or crisis. Now informed, we will urge parents to go to government hospitals which have enough stock. Additionally, government will meet representatives of the vaccine manufacturing companies soon to address the issue."
Privately practising paediatrician Dr Sanjay Niranjan who has an average of administering some 50-60 injections every month said, "Our stockist informed that he has zero stock." Adding that many parents get worried and fear compromising with the oral polio vaccine.
"Injectable polio vaccine gives better protection. It is for this that global alliance for vaccine and immunisation recommends it," he said. The association office-bearers held that the crisis was equally grave in Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Noida, Varanasi and Gorakhpur.
Members of the Indian Paediatric Association have expressed concern stating that over 60% of urban children are immunised in the private sector and injectable polio vaccine was one important element.
An estimated 4.5 lakh children are born in UP every month of whom 1lakh live in urban areas.
author
About the Author
Shailvee Sharda

Journalist with the Times of India since August 2004, Shailvee Sharda writes on Health, Culture and Politics. Having covered the length and breadth of UP, she brings stories that define elements like human survival and its struggle, faiths, perceptions and thought processes that govern the decision making in everyday life, during big events such as an election, tangible and non-tangible cultural legacy and the cost and economics of well-being. She keenly follows stories that celebrate hope and life in general.

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