Initially proposed to be launched in two districts each in Bihar and Gujarat, the world’s first leprosy vaccine indigenously developed but tied up for years in testing, will be rolled out from BJP-ruled State only as Naveen Patnaik Government is yet to give approval to the programme. Both the States are facing acute leprosy problem.
Union Health Minister JP Nadda along with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani will unveil the Mycobacterium Indicus Pranii (MIP) leprosy vaccine in Rajkot on Sunday, to be later implemented in two districts — Narmada and Navsari in the State. A software ‘Nikusth’ to keep a track on leprosy patients will also be launched at the event.
However, the leprosy department officials in the Bihar where the vaccine was proposed to be launched simultaneously in two districts namely Jamui and Banka are clueless about its fate: they said that the State Government is yet to give them go ahead for the vaccine launch.
“We don’t know what we have to do. The Centre has asked us to implement the vaccine but we are waiting for the confirmation from the State Government in this regard,” said a senior official from the State leprosy department.
He said that leprosy cases in Bihar are on the rise. last year, 20,000 cases were reported from the Northern State alone. “We need concentrated surveillance to check the transmission as well as detect and treat the cases. Otherwise, the diseases elimination is not possible in the near future,” the official raised the red flag about the disease.
However, Gujarat is all set to implement the project in Narmada and Navsari where the vaccine will be administered as a preventive measure to people living in close contact with those infected.
Two booster doses will be given after the vaccination — one after two years and another after five years. Concerned at the rising cases of leprosy in the country, the Government is pinning hopes on the MIP which has the potential to bring down new cases of crippling disease by 60 per cent in three years.
It was developed by the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, and has been by approved by the Drug Controller General of India and the FDA in the US.
The disease is caused by the bacteria, Mycobacterium leprae. Sixty per cent of the world’s leprosy patients live in India.