Amid a shortage of the yellow fever vaccine across the state, travellers from Vadodara to Africa and Central and South America are left in a state of quandary. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) centre for vaccination has been out of stock since March.
The shortage has been due to a production shortfall from the government manufacturer, officials at the civic body’s health department said, resulting in six of the seven centres in Gujarat turning away travellers to the endemic countries.
The yellow fever vaccination centre at the Padmavati Shopping Complex in Vadodara has been closed since March after the stocks were over. The centre administers vaccines to people travelling to 29 African countries as well as 13 countries in Central and South America, which are identified as endemic nations. It was opened in May last year to make the process faster for travellers from Vadodara and nearby districts.
A shortage of vaccines, however, from the central government in Himachal Pradesh’s Kasauli meant travellers can now take the shots only in Ahmedabad, where the lone centre in the state is receiving supplies.
“The shortage has arisen centrally and across the 45 centres in the country. Of these, seven vaccination centres are in Gujarat. Currently, except for Ahmedabad, no other centre is receiving the stock of the vaccine. We have already written to the authorities concerned to release our stock. But it may take some time as intimated by the Directorate General of Health Services of the Centre in March,” Dr Devesh Patel, Medical Officer for Health, VMC, told The Indian Express.
“The shortage could probably be because a batch of the vaccines that were to be released may have failed… It generally happens in the case of vaccines. So the Directorate General has decided to provide vaccines to only one centre in each state that is the fastest moving,” he added.
A March 6 order by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare directed “rationalisation” of the vaccine to meet the “immediate need of travellers” while the new batches had been delayed.
The “vaccines will be distributed,” the order stated, “by seeing the average use per month at the vaccination centre for the last year with stocks initially given for two weeks; stock will be given to the fast-moving centres first having more number of weekly vaccination days– at least one centre in each state.”
The order had also directed the states to prioritise vaccines for travellers who were undertaking the journey for medical emergency or business travellers, those who obtained valid visas for travel within two weeks and those with work offer letters requiring the certificate for visa application process within a month.
Patel added the VMC centre, since it opened in May last year, has administered close to 2,200 doses to travellers and witnessed 50 registrations on each of the two days of the week– Tuesday and Thursday– designated for the vaccination. “Currently, the individuals have to travel to Ahmedabad as no other centre in the state has received the stock. Once the stock is available, the VMC Centre will also resume administering of the vaccines. But it might take a while,” Patel added.
The yellow fever vaccine is administered in a single dose, Patel said, adding it is mandatory in countries listed by the World Health Organization.
The yellow fever vaccine is an attenuated, live-virus preparation of the 17D strain of yellow fever virus grown in leucosis-free chick embryos, as per experts. An acute viral haemorrhagic disease, it is caused from a strain of the Flavivirus genus, transmitted by the infected Aedes mosquitoes from monkeys.
In response to the shortage, VMC opposition leader Ami Ravat on Wednesday said, “If there has been a facility created to ensure that the travellers can avail vaccination for YF in Vadodara, it should be ensured that the centre is operational. Otherwise, it only remains a formal announcement without service. The government must procure the vaccines on priority.”
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