PHM-Exch> A letter to DG, WHO - re; pneumococcal vaccine -

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Gopal Dabade drdabade at gmail.com


>  *ALL **INDIA** DRUG ACTION NETWORK (AIDAN)**
> *(http://aidanindia.wordpress.com/)
>
> Rational Drugs and Vaccines for All!
>
> 4th July 2009
>
> To,
> Dr Margaret Chan,
> Director-General of WHO,
> Geneva
>
> Dear Dr Chan,
>
> This is in continuation of Drug Action Forum – Karnataka’s (DAF-K – is a
> member of AIDAN) letter dated 2nd September 2008, regarding the
> “revelation” regarding the pneumococcal vaccine that is being promoted by
> WHO globally and in India that “for every four children in whom pneumonia is
> prevented, two children develop asthma because of the vaccine”. Subsequently
> AIDAN in its letter dated 10th February 2009 had further reiterated the
> same concerns and in addition AIDAN members appreciated your comments in the
> 'The Lancet' dated 15th January 2009, titled "Primary health care as a
> route to health security".*
>
> Your personal assistant Alison Porri, has acknowledged having received
> DAF-K’s letter on 4th September 2008, promising that “Your letter will be
> carefully reviewed and a response will be forthcoming”. After repeated
> reminders, AIDAN received a reply on 3rd April 2009, where in you mention
> that
>
>  "We think that the introduction of pneumococcal vaccines, where merited by
> evidence of the disease burden, would be of tremendous benefit, saving many
> lives, particularly of children. WHO stands ready to assist its Member
> States to assess the need for the use of specific new vaccines, to aid in
> decision-making, prioritization and introduction, and to work on solutions
> for financing them. We look forward to creating a world where no person
> should die of a vaccine-preventable disease and to cooperating with
> countries and partners to realize this goal.”
>
> AIDAN has reservations about the first sentence of this statement because a
> letter published in the Lancet (2nd to 8th July) points out how this
> policy in effect siphons off money to vaccine manufacturers; the funds that
> are actually donated for the MDG without commensurate benefit for the
> children. For the pneumococcal vaccine the letter suggests that $250,000
> will be spent to prevent 4 children getting pneumonia. Instead the 4 cases
> could have been treated by WHO protocol for $1each.
>
> The journal Vaccine of 9 July 2009 (Mathew JL Pneumococcal vaccination in
> developing countries: Where does science end and commerce begin? Vaccine
> 27 (2009) 4247–4251) has also published a scathing indictment of the WHO
> recommendation on the pneumococcal vaccine and what WHO considers ‘evidence
> of the disease burden’ enough to merit vaccination.
>
> This is what the WHO recommendation states
>
> “WHO considers that it should be a priority to include this vaccine in
> national immunization programmes, particularly in countries where mortality
> among children aged <5 years is >50/1000 live births or where >50,000
> children die annually”. (No authors cited. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
> for childhood immunization – WHO position paper. Wkly Epidemiol Rec
> 2007;82:pp. 93–104.)
>
> The author point out that the first criteria of under five mortality
> >50/1000 live births was met by 32 countries but the total population to be
> vaccinated was 18 million.  By including the criteria dependent on
> population size of ‘where >50,000 children die annually’ only 7 additional
> countries were added but it added 161 million to the numbers eligible for
> vaccination (in populous countries of India, China and Brazil). The WHO
> recommendations seem dictated by needs of increasing demand for vaccines and
> profits for manufacturers rather than the needs of public health.
>
> We earnestly appeal to you to reexamine how recommendations are arrived at
> by the WHO or else repeated exposures of this nature will erode the very
> credibility of the WHO. AIDAN and its members restate its demand that it
> should review its stand on the wrong advice given towards the vaccine in
> question.
>
> Please let us know what action you propose to correct this or whether you
> think the policy needs no correction, as you did when we wrote last time.
>
> *The entire correspondence can be accessed at:- http://alturl.com/dkty
>
>
>
> Yours truly
>
> Dr Gopal Dabade et al,
> drdabade at gmail.com
>
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