<div class="gmail_quote">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Anant Phadke</b> <<a href="mailto:anant.phadke@gmail.com">anant.phadke@gmail.com</a>><br><div bgcolor="#ffffff"><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><font>A more </font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">detailed critique is available in the PHM-India website. </font></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Below a shorter version of our critique focussed only
on the ethical aspects of polio eradication. </font></font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><strong><font size="5"><i>Some Ethical Issues in Vaccine Use in </i><i>India</i><i>:
-</i></font></strong></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in;text-align:center" align="center"><span style="font-size:16pt"><strong>Two Case Studies
</strong></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in;text-align:right" align="right"><b>Anant Phadke</b><a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftnref1"><span><b><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>*</span></span>
</b></span></a><b><span style="font-size:16pt"></span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span>There are many ethical issues in
designing and implementation of vaccine policy. In this short piece I would
limit myself to two recent examples in the improper use of vaccines in the
Public Health Services in </span><span style="font-size:11pt">India</span><span style="font-size:11pt">. These examples indicate
the violation by the concerned decision makers of basic ethical principles and
reflect a deeper malaise in our health care system. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Vaccines are no doubt one of
the most cost effective technologies that modern medicine has to offer. However,
thanks to the lack of concern for the people; lack of competence amongst the
concerned health bureaucrats, and due to pressure from the concerned vested
interests, in recent years the policy decisions about use of vaccines in the
Public Health System in India have not only been unscientific, but have even
violated basic human rights of thousands of people, including children. In
</span><span style="font-size:11pt">India</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> we can see this clearly in
case of the use of two vaccines being used in the Public Health System.
–</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt 0.55in;text-indent:-0.25in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span>1.<span>
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt">The Polio Eradication
Initiative launched since 1998 is fraught with many ethical problems, the most
significant being - continued use of additional doses of Oral<span> </span>Polio Vaccine(OPV) despite a clear
evidence that this has been associated with a massive rise in the no. of
paralysed children! </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt 0.55in;text-indent:-0.25in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span>2.<span>
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt">The policy of using the Anti
Rabies Vaccine in </span><span style="font-size:11pt">India</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> is marred by the
non-utilization of the Intra Dermal (ID) route of administration (thanks to the
double standards of the MNCs and the complicity of the Drugs Controller and
hence denial of this vaccine to thousands of needy people who have sustained
rabid dog bite. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt 0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span>Let us briefly deliberate on these two
examples.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt 0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in;text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:16pt">I</span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in;text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:16pt">(Un)ethics of Excessive Use of OPV in Polio Eradication
Programme</span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">The polio-eradication
programme launched in </span><span style="font-size:11pt">India</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> since 1998 is fundamentally
flawed and different public health experts have made a detailed, fundamental
critique of this policy.</span><a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftnref2"><b><sup><span><b><sup><span style="font-size:12pt">[i]</span></sup></b></span></sup></b></a><span style="font-size:11pt"> This is not the place to go
into these scientific arguments. Here we would address only the ethical
implications of this policy.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">Huge Rise in limb-paralysis
in children after the Polio Eradication Initiative!</span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">The justification for
polio-eradication or control programme is that it would substantially reduce the
incidence of lameness in children because polio constitutes the most important
cause of preventable lameness in children. But in reality the incidence of
limb-paralysis in children has increased after the Polio Eradication Initiative.
The number of cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) in children increased from
3047 to 31973 during 1997 to 2006! <a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftnref3"><span><b><span><span><b><span style="font-size:11pt">[ii]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
When this rising trend of limb paralysis in children was pointed out, it was
argued by officials that this apparent rise was due to better and more thorough
documentation and AFP cases and due to increase in the sensitivity of the
surveillance system for recording AFPs. It was claimed that instructions have
been given to initially record any child having any sign of any limpness as AFP,
so that not single case of polio would be missed. It was further claimed that
subsequent follow-up of these AFP cases would reveal that more and more of these
AFP cases as being non-polio cases or without any residual paralysis and finally
when we reach the stage of polio-elimination, all AFP cases would turn out to be
either as 'false – positive' cases or as non-polio cases. So, it was argued,
there is nothing alarming in the steep rise in AFP cases after the
polio-eradication programme. But this argument is fallacious. If the sensitivity
of the surveillance system is increased in say in the year 2000, we would see a
steep rise in AFP cases in only 2001 and may be 2002. The continuous steep rise
in AFP cases seen every year from 1998 till today clearly shows that the
heightened sensitivity of the surveillance system is not the cause of this
galloping of the AFP cases.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">The most damaging evidence
against this 'heightened surveillance sensitivity theory' has come from the
detailed break up of the data on follow-up of AFP cases in UP. This detailed
break up was not being shared by the authorities and was obtained by Dr.Jacob
Puliyel invoking the Right to Information! <b><i>These UP data revealed that</i></b>
–</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- <b><i>In
2005</i></b>, of the 10,055 AFP cases, only 2,553 were followed
up</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">- Of these 217 died and 898
(39%) out of the remaining 2326, had residual paralysis.</span><a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftnref4"><b><sup><span><b><sup><span style="font-size:12pt">[iii]</span></sup></b></span></sup></b></a><b><sup><span style="font-size:11pt">
</span></sup></b><span style="font-size:11pt"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">If we were to believe in the
'heightened surveillance sensitivity' theory, an overwhelming majority of AFP
cases would not have any residual paralysis, would have turned out to be 'false
positive'. But in reality Dr. Jacob Puliyel and others found that a follow-up of
the AFP cases in UP revealed that a whopping 39% of them turned out to have
paralysis even 60 days after the onset of paralysis. They were thus not 'false
positive cases' but were in fact cases of paralysis. These findings were
confirmed again for the year 2006 also by again invoking the RTI
–</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><b><i><span style="font-size:11pt">In 2006</span></i></b><span style="font-size:11pt">, of a total of 10,879 cases
of AFP, only 2,043 were followed up. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Of these, 989 (48.4%) had
residual paralysis!</span><a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftnref5"><b><sup><span><b><sup><span style="font-size:12pt">[iv]</span></sup></b></span></sup></b></a><b><sup> </sup></b><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span>
</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">That most of these cases of
residual paralysis do not have polio virus in their stools is no consolation.
The point is - after the Polio Eradication Initiative there has been a steep
rise in the number of incidence of AFP and also of residual paralysis in
children. One is forced to conclude that increased number of polio doses in this
Polio Eradication Initiative has led to this increase since such increase is not
known to occur in the polio-control programme in which a child gets 5 doses of
Oral Polio Vaccine in 18 months after birth. The mechanism for this huge
increase is not clear. But this rise should make any policy maker stand up and
do something to reverse this rise. Not only that no action was taken to reverse
this trend, even the relevant data are being suppressed. This suppression of
data of break up of follow-up of AFP cases is unethical. It is an attempt to
conceal the fact that thousands of children are getting paralysed when repeated
additional doses of Oral Polio Vaccine are being given. A rational and humane
response to this stupendous rise in paralysed children after the Polio
Eradication Initiative should be to immediately suspend the additional doses of
OPV and investigate the matter in detail. If any other scientific explanation is
found, the PIE can be exonerated. But till then to continue with these
additional doses of OPV is downright unethical; nay
criminal!</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">It is necessary that all
these children who have lost their limbs be fully rehabilitated and their
parents adequately compensated. Criminal liability should be ascertained for
those officials who have suppressed this information of breakup of follow-up of
AFP cases and those officials and policy makers who are responsible for
continuing this policy of </span><span style="font-size:11pt">PEI</span><span style="font-size:11pt">. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">No compensation for VAPP
cases</span></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">It is well known that OPV
inevitably causes Vaccine Associated Paralytic Polio (VAPP) in a miniscule
proportion of OPV receivers – an average 1 case of VAPP per 4 million doses
polio. In </span><span style="font-size:11pt">India</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> due to the
</span><span style="font-size:11pt">PEI</span><span style="font-size:11pt">, it is expected that
annually there would be about 200 cases of VAPP till
</span><span style="font-size:11pt">PEI</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> continues. These children
have to sacrifice their limbs involuntarily or the altar of 'Public Good'.
</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">The injectable Polio Vaccine
(IPV) does not cause VAPP. But it was decided that it's too costly for a
developing country like </span><span style="font-size:11pt">India</span><span style="font-size:11pt">. Assuming that there was no
way to reduce its cost of production or to allocate more funds for its use in
India, it has to be accepted that VAPP is the unavoidable cost that about 200
children have to pay annually to save the limbs of 30,000 children in India. But
then at least these 200 or so children should be fully rehabilitated and
compensated.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Thanks to the technological
advancements, each VAPP case can be individually identified and distinguished
from cases of 'natural polio' and paralytic cases of non-polio origin. All such
children struck with VAPP should be fully rehabilitated and compensated. This
demand was made by the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan to the Health Minister and the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) during the National Hearing on 6th March
07. As a result the NHRC thereafter has recommended such a measure but the govt.
has ignored it.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">The National Polio
Surveillance Project (NPSP) which publishes some other details of the AFP cases
on its website has not revealed the number of VAPP cases on its website. Those
children struck with AFP and also have the Vaccine Virus in their stool-culture
are categorized as Vaccine Virus cases in the NPSP website data. These Vaccine
Virus cases which would continue to have paralysis after 60 days of follow-up
are VAPP cases and they should be counted separately. But NPSP has suppressed
these figures. This is unethical.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">The India Expert Advisory
Group (IEAG), (incidentally 40% of its members are non-Indians and they dominate
this group) which gives technical guidance to the PEI has argued that polio
caused by Polio Virus II and III has been eradicated and the upsurge of cases of
polio in 2002, 2006 was due to Polio Virus I (P1). Hence to eradicate PI, it
advised the use of monovalent OPV consisting of five times more potent variant
of only the attenuated PI virus. This monovalent vaccine -m1OPV- was
administered in UP over a large scale. Such large scale use has not been done
earlier anywhere in the world and hence has been experimental. It has been
pointed out that the vaccine that was being used was "a new vaccine that was
five times more potent than previous vaccines, presumably also with increased
likelihood of adverse effects. No informed consent was taken, nor was the public
told that the vaccine was experimental. Efforts were made to give the impression
that the monovalent vaccine was not new but was just the monovalent vaccine used
in the 1960s, before the introduction of the trivalent vaccine." </span><a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftnref6"><b><sup><span><b><sup><span style="font-size:12pt">[v]</span></sup></b></span></sup></b></a><span style="font-size:11pt">
Would such large scale
experiment have been carried out in the West from where many of the
international advisors come?</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">So long as polio is not
eradicated world wide developed countries have to continue polio-vaccination
even if there have been no cases of polio in these countries. Hence it is in
their interest that </span><span style="font-size:11pt">PEI</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> is pushed, even if it may
not be the priority of the developing countries. One way of doing this was to
push up the estimated number of cases of polio. It has been pointed out by C.
Sathyamala, "In 1988, when the WHO launched the global eradication program, the
total number of paralytic poliomyelitis cases reported worldwide was 32,419.
However, the WHO increased the figure 10-fold to justify the claim that
paralytic poliomyelitis was a major problem of public health importance. Thus,
post facto, the number of polio cases worldwide artificially rose from about
35,000 to 350,000 for 1988. The WHO's argument was that the reported cases were
an underestimate and that they were at least ten times more. While this may or
may not be true, in 2004 we see that the "Geneva Declaration for the Eradication
of Poliomyelitis" has converted the estimated cases (a hypothetical number) into
reported cases (real number) by a magical stroke of the keyboard. In the latest
WHO document presented to the fifty-seventh World Health Assembly in May 2004,
even the word "reported" has been deleted and the statement. Now reads,
"paralysing more than 350,000 children."</span><a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftnref7"><b><sup><span><b><sup><span style="font-size:12pt">[vi]</span></sup></b></span></sup></b></a><b><sup> </sup></b><span style="font-size:11pt">
</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt">This manipulation to
overestimate the incidence of polio is unethical. One would also point out that
polio is only one cause of lameness in children. In fact overwhelming majority
of AFP cases are due to non-polio entero-viruses. Hence even if polio is
eradicated, it will reduce lameness in children by only about 20%. We should
certainly try to prevent polio even if we can not prevent other causes of
children. But to create an impression that we are eliminating lameness in
children through polio-vaccination is misleading and hence
unethical.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><b><i><span style="font-size:11pt">To
summarize,</span></i></b><span style="font-size:11pt"> the
</span><span style="font-size:11pt">PEI</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> has been quite problematic
on ethical grounds. –</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Wingdings"><span>§<span>
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt">The incidence of polio has
been highly overestimated by manipulation; </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Wingdings"><span>§<span>
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt">The number of VAPP cases has
been suppressed and there is no plan for rehabilitation and compensation to VAPP
cases. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Wingdings"><span>§<span>
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt">The
</span><span style="font-size:11pt">PEI</span><span style="font-size:11pt"> relentlessly continues with
additional doses of OPV despite the fact there is steep rise in incidence of AFP
resulting into loss of limbs of tens of thousands of children as there is
residual paralysis in about 40% of these AFP cases. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;text-indent:0.3in"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Wingdings"><span>§<span>
</span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt">Monovalent polio-vaccine is
being pushed on a large scale without following the ethical norms for this large
– scale trial. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt 0.55in;text-align:center" align="center"><span style="font-size:11pt">***************</span></p><div>
<div>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><a title="" name="11730334f18a65b1__ftn1"><span><span style="font-family:Symbol"><span>*</span></span></span></a>
<i>Co-ordinator, </i><i><span style="font-size:11pt">SATHI-CEHAT, 3&4, Aman
Terrace, Plot No. 140, Dahanukar Colony, Kothrud, </span>Pune – 411029 Tel:
020-25451413; phone fax 020 – 25452325, <a href="mailto:cehatpun@vsnl.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt">cehatpun@vsnl.com</span></a></i></p>
<p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"> </font></p></div></div></div></div></div>