Hepatitis B vaccine will cost Rs 400 cr
So, it is not included in national programme: experts
By Poonam Batth
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 12 — Experts participating in the 33rd national Convention of the Indian College of Allergy and Applied Immunology underlined the importance of adequate immunisation coverage in the National Immunisation Policy to control infectious diseases.

A cross-section of doctors who were interviewed on the first day of the conference gave their views on the role and prospects of vaccination in the 21st century. They were of the view that immunisations are one of the most effective means of preventing morbidity and can be rated as the most significant advances of the present century. They also lauded the Delhi Government's move to introduce the MMR ( mumps, measles and rubella) injection in its immunisation schedule from November 14 and wanted other states and UTs to follow suit.

Dr Ashok Dutta, Professor and Head, Department of Paediatrics, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, maintained that the National Immunisation Policy should include only those vaccines which reduce infant mortality rate, which is at present very high. However, the availability of these vaccines and their cost effectiveness should also be taken into account at the time of introducing any new vaccine. According to him, it is not feasible to give hepatitis B vaccine under the national policy for it is required to be given within the first 12 hours of a child's birth. But out of the total 25 million babies born in our country, 80 per cent are born at home and it would not be possible to bring them to the hospital for this dose.

Dr Dutta further said that it was not practical to introduce such a vaccine as it would cost Rs 400 crore. Moreover, the disease does not cause any mortality and can at the most affect the liver at later stages. Even injections for hepatitis A and chickenpox should not be given in routine. Besides the vaccines covered under the National Immunisation Programme, a child should be given vaccines only after consulting the paediatrician, he added. He does not advocate vaccines for hepatitis A and chickenpox.

Talking about the well-defined immunisation programme for children, Prof G.P. Talwar, Professor of Eminence, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, said the majority of the vaccines packaged by Indian companies were of good quality and cost effective. "The dream of vaccinologists is to have a single time delivery of all that a child needs to get immunised against a variety of infections it gets exposed to, preferably through oral and nasal drops'', he added.

Contrary to Dr Dutta's views, he maintained that vaccines to prevent a disease like hepatitis B, which in course of time causes liver cancer, should be provided at a subsidised rate so that most people could benefit from its dosage. He also revealed that many nasal and oral vaccines would be available in the next millennium. For instance, the oral cholera vaccine had already entered clinical trials. However, the AIDS vaccine is a distant dream. Vaccinations against cancer, auto-immunisation diseases, allergies and control of fertility would also be made available in the next century.

In a country like ours where the National Immunisation Programme is essentially based to contain six vaccines of preventable diseases such as diphtheria, whopping cough, tetanus, measles, polio and tuberculosis, the proposal of giving 5-6 vaccines through a single shot was still a far-fetched idea, said Dr Harminder Singh, former Director CRI, Kasauli. The inclusion of BCG, in the national programme was also being reviewed as it is not being effective in case of adults.

He also pointed out that even as the Indian Association of Paediatrics has recommended that hepatitis B be included in the national programme, it was not possible to do so due to paucity of funds. Dr Singh maintained that since India is a poor country, strategy should be to eliminate the disease and more money should be spent on child welfare than treatment. The Centre should also make efforts to make these vaccines available to children free of cost to ensure better health for all. He also listed a few new vaccines which would be available in the next millennium. These include rota virus for diarrhoea and cholera vaccine, which is currently having field trials.

Dr S.V. Gangal, former Director of CSIR Laboratory, Delhi, emphasised on the need to standardise the "allergy vaccines'' for better results as it was the only way to change the immunological make-up of the body. He also cautioned against the misuse of such agents in clinical practice as they are powerful therapeutic tools.

He was also of the view that hepatitis B injection could be subsidised and only when the price further went down the government could provide it free of cost. The injections for hepatitis A and chickenpox should be need based and not in routine. While the vaccines for cholera and diarrhoea are all set to come, the AIDS vaccine and malaria will be the next to follow in the new millennium.

Welding industry “hit” by globalisation
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 12 — "The globalisation of the Indian economy has left an adverse effect on the Indian welding manufacturing industry." This was stated by Mr M.L. Gehani, Chief Executive Officer, Modi Arc Electrodes, at the two-day workshop on "Welding Technologies: Challenges and Opportunities" organised at the CII here.

He said with the reduction in import duties and removal of other barriers which were there in the way of imports, Indian manufacturers of welding consumables and equipment had started facing competition from foreign suppliers. He said it was possible to turn this threat into an opportunity but for that the manufacturers would have to adopt a quality oriented approach towards their products. He said Indian manufacturers could learn a lesson from their European counterparts where large quantities of branded electrodes and wires were manufactured by a third party and marketed by brand owner, but that trend was yet to catch on in India.

"We can match them and emerge as a manufacturing hub of the region through an increase in the productivity. However, the regulatory framework would need to be amended not only on the fiscal side but also on the labour front in order to optimise labour costs. Moreover, Indian manufacturers would have to attain a stage where not just adherence to ISO quality standard but also TQM becomes a way of life in conducting business."

He said welding was an integral part of the entire industrial set-up and growth in this industry, though slower than desired, could be increased considerably," Mr Gehani added.

Presenting his paper, "Accepting the Challenges of Productivity of the 21st Century by Using Ultra-Low Hydrogen Fluxcored Wires," Mr M.P. Dhanuka, Vice- President, Welding Technology, Advani Oerlikon Ltd, said in comparison to the developed countries, automation in the welding industry in our country was quite slow. Till date 60 fabricators had been using metals and alloys by using the trusted SMAW process. It was only during the early seventies that fabricators started realising the importance of higher productivity and automation which could bring down the cost of fabrication and could maintain profitability.

In his address, Mr S.M. Mahajan, Additional General Manager of Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited, said manufacturing technology had seen phenomenal advancement since the past two decades specially in the area of metal cutting and associated technologies. The pace of advancements had got accelerated tremendously with the developments in electronics and computer based machine tool controls and integration of decision making logics with manufacturing operations involved in business.

Mr S.P. Jindal, Product Manager, Modi Arc Electrodes Company, in his paper, "Development of Austenitic Stainless Steel Electrodes," said the advantage of stainless steels was that it did not catch rust or corrode in contact with other metals.

A number of leading experts from organisations like Comau, ABB, IIT, Welding Research Institute, Advani Oerlikon made presentations over two days on the latest technologies in the areas of laser welding, shielded metal and gas metal welding and austenitic stainless steel electrodes.