ROTAVIRUS LOW-COST VACCINATION

ROTAVIRUS LOW-COST VACCINATION
Rotavirus, killer germ of children worldwide takes the life of about four lakhs children every year. The prevention of this deadly disease is though administration of a vaccine, which until today has been at prohibitive cost making it unavailable for poor and underdeveloped nations, catalyzed by DBT, the Rotavac vaccine developed through public–private partnership is available at a fraction of the cost making it possible for universal access.
Rotavirus is a double-stranded RNA virus. It belongs to Reoviridae family. The mode of transmission of this virus is fecal. The damage it causes to the neonates is the destruction of intestinal cell. The diseases are basically gastrointestinal infection and stomach flu. 

PAIN TAKEN BY PAST SCHOLARS TO COME TO THE PRESENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Globally rotavirus kills four and half lakh infants every year. In India itself one lakh children die per year with diarrhoea and dehydration.
In India, Rotavac (trade name) has been developed in public–private partnership. Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India (public partner) and Bharat Biotech (private partner) had worked in closed collaboration for around last two decades to achieve this success.
The vaccine has successfully completed all three stages of clinical trials and is available for sale in the market. Still the vaccine is awaiting clearance from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
The cost of our indigenous vaccine is around fifty rupees, which is 1/20 times cheaper than the international vaccines. According to the updates given by Mr Bhan (former secretary DBT) to Times of India (TOI) “There is no side-effect or safety issue.” Adding to this Dr. Vijay Raghavan said that the vaccine could save the lives of thousands of children each year in India.
This low-price vaccine will not only help Indian citizens but also our low-income neighbouring countries.
The health experts throughout the globe say that the Rotavirus is one of the deadly viruses for death of children in the world.
This development was even appreciated by Bill Gates the corporate giant in a briefing to Business Today on 14th May 2013. "This public–private partnership is an exemplary model of how to develop affordable technologies to save lives," Bill Gates.
In the next six months the clearance job will be probably done by DCGI.
According to the reports given by British Broadcasting (BBC) the similar vaccines produced by leading Pharmacological organisation like; Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, cost around one thousand rupees.
"This is an important scientific breakthrough against rotavirus infections, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea, responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths of small children in India each year," India's Department of Biotechnology official K Vijay Raghavan said.
According to the research conducted by Dr. Roger I Glass and co-worker in the year 2006, Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea in children worldwide and diarrhoeal deaths in children in developing countries. Two live oral rotavirus vaccines have been licensed in many countries; one is derived from an attenuated human strain of rotavirus and the other combines five bovine-human reassortant strains. Each vaccine has proven highly effective in preventing severe rotavirus diarrhoea in children and safe from the possible complication of intussusceptions (RI Glass et al, Rotavirus vaccines: current prospects and future challenges, The Lancet 368; 9532: 323–332, 2006).
Rotavirus strains from 964 faecal specimens collected from children at around ten United States hospital laboratories (from Nov 1997 to March 1998) and from samples collected at 12 laboratories (from Nov 1998 to March 1999) were typed for G and P proteins. Serotype G1 was the predominant serotype in 1997–1998 (88%), followed by G2 (6.2%), G9 (3.3%), and G3 (1.5%). This pattern was similar to that seen in 1998–1999: G1 (79%), G2 (15%), G9 (3.0%), G4 (1.6%), and G3 (0.3%) (DD Griffin et al, Surveillance of rotavirus strains in the United States: identification of unusual strains, J Clin Microbiol 38; 7: 2784–2787, 2000).
The Indian rotavirus vaccine, Rotavac, was developed this year. If approved by the DCGI, it would be available at Rs. 54 per dose, more affordable than the two vaccines now available in the retail chemist shop costing more than Rs. 1,000 per dose.

Ultimately, summing up by quoting the wonderful words of Dr. Vijay Raghavan, "This is an important scientific breakthrough against rotavirus infections, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea, responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths of small children in India each year."




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