Uttar Pradesh recalls contaminated polio vaccine vials, FIR filed against manufacturer

It is estimated the polio vaccine supplied was enough to cater to about 10 crore children in 10 states and had even reached health centres where facility for delivery is available. The matter came to light in Uttar Pradesh only.

An alert was sounded in Uttar Pradesh and vials of polio vaccine of the B100318 batch recalled after confirmation that the vaccine supplied under routine immunisation programme was contaminated with the globally eradicated type-2 polio virus strain.

An FIR has been filed against the firm Biomed which manufactured the polio vaccine that was found to contaminated.(HT File / Photo used for representational purpose only)

“We have recalled all the vials of B100318 batch. These vials were supplied for routine immunisation programme, particularly in east UP districts like Varanasi, Allahabad, Mirzapur and Mau. An FIR has been lodged against the company Biomed as the P2 virus should not have been present in the bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV),” said Neena Gupta, director general, family welfare, Uttar Pradesh.

It is estimated the vaccine supplied was enough to cater to about 10 crore children in 10 states and had even reached health centres where facility for delivery is available. The matter came to light in Uttar Pradesh only.

The vials were given particularly in Varanasi, Allahabad Gazipur, Mirzapur and a few other districts in west UP like Agra, Aligarh, Moradabad and Meerut.

On August 5, a polio drive was conducted and two days later a child developed some problems. “The stools test confirmed presence of P2 virus after which the vials were checked in the lab. When P2 virus was confirmed in the other samples also, it was decided to take action against the company and recall the entire stock ,” said Gupta.

The decision to switch to inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) from trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) in polio campaigns and routine immunisation from April 2016 was taken following certification of global eradication of type 2 wild poliovirus.

The last type 2 wild polio virus case in India was detected in 1999. The tOPV that was used till April 2016 contained three types of poliovirus vaccines (P1, P2 and P3) and protected against all three types of wild polioviruses – type 1, 2 and 3, while bOPV contains two types of poliovirus vaccines (P1 and P3) and protects against type 1 and type 3 wild polioviruses.