‘Forced’ import of Diptheria vaccine on

The Health Ministry is facing an acute shortage of anti-diptheria serum after the disease took epidemic proportions in Gujarat, Rajasthan, M...

The Health Ministry is facing an acute shortage of anti-diptheria serum after the disease took epidemic proportions in Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP and most recently, Haryana.

The problem however is unique. The vaccine, say Ministry officials, is now difficult to manufacture in the country. They reason that the criteria for selection of horses for production of the vaccine has changed, following decisions taken by Maneka Gandhi in her tenure as the Environment minister.

‘‘The vaccine is produced by inserting diphtheria germ into a horse so that it can develop antibodies. The horse is then made to bleed slowly so that the blood can be stored and after proper purification used as vaccine for the disease,’’ said an official.

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Following the rules set by Maneka, the horse has to ‘‘be absolutely healthy’’. ‘‘The availability of the vaccine in the country is near zero,’’ said an official.

So, there is not much choice but to import it. And most of them are from Switzerland — for US $40-50 per vial. ‘‘WHO is helping in procuring the medicines,’’ said an official.