Anti-rabies vaccine unit staff launch stir

By T. Lalith Singh

HYDERABAD, JUNE 23.

Even as the State Government sits on a proposal for closing down the Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV) unit of the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM), the 600-odd employees have launched an agitation protesting against the move. The staff which started relay hunger strike threatened on Saturday to intensify the agitation if the Government failed to scrap the proposal for shutting down the 25- year-old unit.

The employees accuse the Government of trying to take over the 58-acre land in which the ARV unit is located at Nacharam and either retrench or redeploy the staff in other departments. The unit produces around 15 lakh ml of ARV every year for attending to dog bite cases and is supplied free of cost.

"If IPM stops production, where will the poor persons bitten by dogs go for a vaccine ? The vaccines marketed by the pharmaceutical companies cost around Rs. 1,800 for a course of six injections. Would the poor be able to afford this cost ?" argues Mr. P.Ram Narayan, president of the A.P.Medical Employees Union, IPM-Unit. The IPM Anti Rabies clinic at Narayanguda alone attends to an average of 550 dog bite cases every day.

The employees refuse to accept responsibility for the unit's failure in reaching targets. "Agreed that we failed to reach the target of 25 lakh ml per year, but authorities should take the blame for this. The unit continues to be run on an annual budget that was decided some 15 years ago," says the union treasurer, Mr. P.Venkateswarulu. The ARV is developed from sheep brain and the cost of sheep itself has gone up by at least 10 times in the last 15 years, he says.

On Saturday, about 252 employees affiliated to the Andhra Pradesh N.G.O's Association also joined the agitation. Interestingly, even as the agitation threatened to pick heat, the IPM director, Dr. P. Sangram, proceeded on leave on Friday and Mr. Alok Srivastava, Inspector-General (Drugs & Copy Right), took over as incharge director on Saturday morning. This move has caused concern among the employees amidst rumours of their immediate redeployment to other departments.

Faced with hostile employees, Mr.Srivastava, however, says that the whole episode was "perhaps a result of misunderstanding". The Government has not taken any decision so far and only a proposal for closing down the unit was made following refusal of the Drug Controller-General of India to renew it's licence.

"The unit's infrastructure is antiquated and the Drug Controller has refused to renew the licence until certain modifications (costing an estimated Rs. 55 lakhs) were carried out," he says. Also, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has suggested that the Government do away with the present Neural Tissue vaccine and instead produce the latest Cell Culture vaccine which is known for less side-effects.

"The question is whether to invest such an amount in a vaccine (Neural Tissue) that is out dated or instead set up infrastructure for the production of Cell Culture vaccine," Mr. Srivastava questions.

The IPM Nacharam unit incharge, Dr. Lakshmi Prasad, feels that Cell Culture vaccine which is prepared from cell lines minimises the prospect of reaction to the patients and was also easy to administer. "The present vaccine which is based on nearly century-old concept involves the painful procedure of administering in umbilical region. The new vaccine can be given in deltoid (shoulder) region and the side effects are very rare when compared to the present vaccine with one reaction in 10,000 injections," says Dr. Lakshmi Prasad.

The IPM incharge director, Mr. Srivastava, who held a meeting with the agitating employees on Saturday afternoon sought to impress upon them that there would not be any retrenchments. He later told "The Hindu" that the "service and salaries of all the employees would be protected in case the Government takes a decision on stopping the vaccine production." Even the present practice of providing free vaccine for dog bites would be continued but with a "better Cell Culture vaccine."

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