Medical body opposes India’s mass hepatitis B vaccination drive

Indian Medical Association says hepatitis B magnitude not as bad as expected.

7 June 2006
DELHI, INDIA

The Indian government’s ambitious programme to rid the country from growing scourge of hepatitis B, thorough massive immunisation drive is met with opponents from the most unusual quarter: the country’s own medical community.

India was actively considering the inclusion of hepatitis B vaccine in the government-promoted National Immunization Programme (NIP), following the recommendation of a pilot project to upscale the vaccine use. 

However, a study carried out by Indian Medical Association (IMA) –the mouth piece organization of India’s medical fraternity –has come out with the finding that the magnitude of the problem of hepatitis B in India to be much lower than what has been officially perceived. 

The actual rate of hepatitis B occurrence amongst the non-tribal population of the country is only 2.1 percent, a figure far less than the officially quoted 5 per cent, the study suggests.

The death rate from liver cancer following the disease too was found to be very low as it constitutes just 1.6 per cent of all cancer deaths happening in the country. 

It has been pointed out that the government had not done any proper evaluation on the outcome of the pilot hepatitis B vaccination project carried out in 15 selected cities and 32 districts in 17 states of the country.

No data was available to collate the evidence about the success of the project, despite the fact that the pilot study was meant to assess the real impact of hepatitis B vaccination.

The IMA’s position paper - "Issues Related to Hepatitis B Vaccination in India: Systematic Review of Literature" – concludes that the scaling up from a donor-funded pilot study costing Rs 27 crore to universal immunization that would cost Indian exchequer Rs 500 crore annually without proper analysis of the benefits of the pilot study would be irresponsible and difficult to defend. 

These observations from the country’s most powerful medical body could seriously mar the reported claim made by the central government on the success of the pilot project and its plans to upscale the immunisation drive nation-wide. 

Not only that, the IMA remarks could also cast a shadow on the huge market opportunities, which some drug firms were eyeing, resulting from the inclusion of the hepatitis B vaccine in the universal immunisation list.

A clutch of home-grown as well as multinational drug firms with hepatitis B vaccine portfolios have been in the process of scaling up production, of late, anticipating a increased demand in the near future.
GlaxoSmithKline, the leading player in hepatitis vaccine segment has recently started awareness campaigns to educate the public on the need for immunising against the widely prevalent strains of hepatitis B viruses through a series of ad campaigns, through hoardings and pamphlets in major cities without directly mentioning the brand names as it goes against the existing laws on advertising in ethical medicines in the country.