Nelson Mandela once said, “There
can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats
its children.”
According to TOI, India witnessed
more child deaths, than any other country, accounting for a staggering 21% of
the global deaths. It is estimated that about 4% of all the under-5 deaths in
India is due to Hib disease, a figure exhibiting the importance of a Hib
vaccine in India. The fastidious nature of the Hib bacterium and the poor
infrastructure in the developing countries like India, makes the diagnosis of
the disease extremely difficult.
Hib is a deadly bacterium that causes severe diseases like pneumonia and
meningitis, which are the leading causes of child deaths in India, accounting
for nearly 21% of the global death figures. Hib capsular polysaccharides
(Hib-PRP) are poorly immunogenic in children less than two years of age and
require conjugation to a protein carrier. Moreover the Hib conjugate vaccine,
which plays a vital role in national immunization programs and also forms a
main part of the pentavalent vaccine, is the costliest component.
The new conjugate vaccine developed by Hilleman Laboratories is a more
immunogenic preparation of Hib capsular polysaccharide (PRP)–tetanustoxoid (TT)
conjugates using optimized PRP chain length and conjugation conditions. This
new and unique cost-effective formulation developed by the company will
significantly reduce the cost of Hib vaccine, which in turn, will help in
reducing the market price of the pentavalent vaccine, thus making it accessible
to a larger number of people. This will definitely have a larger economic
impact on the public health system and subsequently bring down the expenditure
in the system.
Thus introducing a Hib vaccine is of paramount importance for
a country like India. It will have a positive impact in reducing child illness
and death, as we have seen in the case of the industrialized part of the world
where the disease has been virtually wiped out through immunization.
Hib vaccines are currently being used in over 185 countries
worldwide, which represent over 95% of WHO member nations. The Hib-pentavalent
vaccine is currently available in 18 states across India.
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