Madhya Pradesh health officials are in a quandary after receiving a supply of some eight lakh near-expiry DPT vaccines from the Centre last month. The vaccines will expire next month and officials face a herculean task to use them within a month to prevent them from being wasted.
Health officers from various districts who got this supply of unwanted vaccine have asked for the ways from the higher authorities to use it in a short span. The demand for DPT vaccine has plummeted especially after the introduction of new one shot Pentavalent vaccine in 2015.
The huge supply of some eight lakh vaccines by union health ministry was dispatched to Madhya Pradesh in March 2017. The vaccines bear an expiry date of May 2017.
“We had asked not to supply the near-expiry date vaccine but by that time allotment was done,’’ said Santosh Shukla, state immunisation officer. He said they would try to use the vaccine with its time-limit by holding special campaigns in schools. In a statement, he said “these vaccines are potent and usable. They were supplied on the basis of target and not consumption.”
Vaccines were supplied to regional centres like Bhopal (1.50 lakh), Jabalpur (1.50 lakh), Indore (2.14 lakh) and Gwalior (1.50 lakh). In centers like Gwalior, vaccine is in too much quantity as there are over 31,000 kids who are supposed to be administered vaccine.
The supply from the Centre was done in March knowing that most of the kids are now covered under Pentavalent Vaccine. The ‘five in one’ Pentavalent vaccine has become part of universal immunisation programme which was adopted by the Union government.
The single shot of Pentavalent vaccine provide protection to infants from five life-threatening ailments like—Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus (DPT), Hepatitis B and Pneumonia due to Hib (Haemophilus influenza type B).
Health departments of most of the states, in support with UNICEF, have launched Pentavalent Vaccine programme with great fanfare two years back. With the new vaccine, infants do not have to take five doses of DTP at the age of 1.5 month, 2.5 month, 3.5 month, 2 years and 5 years.
Meanwhile, chief medical and health officer of Gwalior Dr S.S. Jadon has written a letter to Health Directorate of Madhya Pradesh asking what to do with the supply of DTP which is not required and will expire in next one month.
