On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 10:29 PM, Jagannath Chatterjee <jagchat01@yahoo.com> wrote:
*ALL **INDIA** DRUG ACTION NETWORK (AIDAN)**
*(http://aidanindia. wordpress. com/)
Rational Drugs and Vaccines for All!
**57, Tejaswinagar, Dharwad 580002, **India**, Tel & fax +91- 836- 2461722 (
**drdabade@gmail. com**)
* A-60, Hauz Khas, **New Delhi** 110016, **India**, Tel: +91-11-26512385 (
mirashiva@gmail. com)*
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
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,
drdabade@gmail. com
Dr Jacob Puliyal,
puliyel@gmail. com
Dr Mira Shiva,
mirashiva@gmail. com
Dr Anurag Bhargav,
abhar786@yahoo. com
Mr Srinivasan,
sahajbrc@youtele. com
Dr Anant Phadke,
anant.phadke@ gmail.com
--
http://novartisboyc ott.org/petition
Dr Gopal Dabade,
57, Tejaswinagar,
Dharwad 580 002
Tel 0836-2461722
Cell (0)9448862270
www.jagruti. org
http://aidanindia. wordpress. com/
www.daf-k.cjb. net
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
"If you're going to ask people to take the swine flu vaccine for the common good, then let's make sure for the common good that these people will be taken care of if something goes wrong," - Paul Pennock, Medico-legal expert.
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