Kerala health minister writes to Centre, seeks efficacy test on rabies vaccine
Monday’s death of a 12-year-old girl, who was taken three doses of vaccine and immunoglobulin, triggered enough outrage in the state.
In the wake of five rabies deaths in the state despite taking vaccines, Kerala health minister Veena George on Tuesday wrote to union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya requesting him to direct the central drug laboratory to check efficacy and quality of the intra venal rabies vaccine.
Monday’s death of a 12-year-old girl, who was taken three doses of vaccine and immunoglobulin, triggered enough outrage in the state.
In her letter to the union minister, she said a few deaths despite taking vaccines have increased concern of people. She also sent the batch no of vaccine vials and the central drug laboratory’s (CDL) authentication details with the letter.
The CDL testifies all vaccines under the drugs and cosmetics act in the country before their release for use.
This year 22 people died of rabies and out of these five had taken vaccine prompting the government to sit up and think. It also constituted a seven-member experts’ team under Dr Thomas Mathew, director of the state medical education, to study these deaths and examine efficacy of vaccine.
On Aug 30, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced in the assembly that an expert committee will be formed to investigate recent rabies deaths despite taking necessary vaccine.
There are allegations that quality control norms were tweaked to expedite quicker purchase. The committee has been asked to submit its report in a month’s time.
The government has also started an awareness campaign on dog bite cases and decided to strengthen animal birth control (ABC) programmes, responsible ownership of pets and scientific waste management measures to fight the menace. All local bodies have been asked to strengthen the ABC and control stray menace on war footing.
According to Kerala health department statistics, over 95,000 people were bitten by dogs in eight months this year and 14 deaths were reported compared to 11 last year.
Union minister of fisheries and animal husbandry P Rupala told the Lok Sabha last month while answering a question of Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader A M Ariff that Kerala was among the top six states with maximum number of dog bite cases in the country.
Statistics in the past five years also show cases are going up steadily in the state: from 148,899 in 2019 to 121,529 cases till August 2022. Rabies deaths are also on the rise. From nine cases in 2018 to 14 deaths till August 2022.
The stray dog menace also reached the Supreme Court after two petitioners, Father Gevarghese Thomas and Sabu Stephen, moved the court last week seeking its intervention.
The plea was earlier posted for September 26, but was pushed forward to Sept 9 after counsel for the petitioners, V K Biju, on Monday insisted that there was a steady hike in cases in Kerala and cited the case of the 12-year-old girl’s death.
“From God’s own country Kerala has become a dog’s own country. Aged, daily-wagers and children are getting attacked. It is a serious issue especially affecting the poor,” the counsel has contended while pressing for an early hearing.
