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On Tuesday, Health Minsiter Anant Mishra gave a detailed background of how the Centre had allegedly failed to provide adequate equipment and facilities to check such diseases. “The Central government had supplied excess cold storage equipment to Maharastra and only one-fourth of the requirement to Uttar Pradesh,” he alleged.
According to the minister, Uttar Pradesh requires around 1,459 lakh doses of polio, JE, measles and other vaccines for routine immunisation. To store this, the Centre had supplied only 652 iceline freezers and 1,183 deep freezers.
But Maharastra, which uses around 578 lakh doses of the vaccines, was supplied with 1,180 iceline freezers and around 3,056 deep freezers.
“They can condemn us. But it is because of them that we are suffering. They neither supply us with vaccines on time and nor provide us with proper amount of cold chain equipment,” Mishra said.
Out of the vaccines that have been supplied, the Centre has put a stop on the use of around 5 lakh doses of measles vaccines and around 21 lakh doses of BCG, saying they are not sure whether the particular batch is safe or not, the minister alleged.
“Around a month ago, the JE vaccination drive was to be included in the routine immunisation programme in the high-risk districts. We had demanded around 10 lakh vaccines, but they supplied us with only 4.6 lakh, which were also substandard,” Mishra said.
The minister further said that though this is the peak season for the diseases in eastern UP, the state still does not have JE vaccines under the routine immunisation programme. The state had demanded rapid testing kits for diagnosis of malaria and around 2,100 mt of DDT for spraying in the affected areas. While not a single rapid testing kit has been provided, around 500 mt of DDT has been supplied.
“The situation in eastern UP is getting out of hand,” he said. This year, 1,363 children have been infected with Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, of which, 234 have died. As many as 1,858 people have been infected with measles and 45 have died.
Central team takes samples of unfit JE vaccines
A two-member Central enquiry team took samples of JE vaccine on Tuesday that was declared unfit for use by the UP Health officials.
Dr Anil Kumar, Assistant Commissioner, Department of Health, Government of India and Dr Jagdish Chandra, CMO in-charge of Government Medical Store Depot at Karnal, however, said that they would be in a position to give a statement only once the test on the vaccine is completed. Four days ago, the state government had received around 4.6 lakh doses of JE vaccine, but during a random check, the vials were found deteriorated due to exposure to heat.
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