Dhaka defers hepatitis-B vaccination

Bangladesh has deferred until October the launch of the hepatitis-B vaccination under the Extended Programme of Immunisation.

The deferment aims at enabling the government to focus on expanding Sub-National Immunisation Days and intensifying surveillance in the wake of identification of seven confirmed polio cases in Murshidabad and Birbhum districts of West Bengal in, near the Bangladesh border, health ministry officials said yesterday.

But the government move has caused public concern because of the high mortality rate from hepatitis-B, which costs the lives of about 22,000 children under 15 annually in the country.

It announced last month that a hepatitis-B vaccination programme would be launched this month for children under the age of one initially in six districts and one city corporation as a pilot project.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation committed to providing $40 million for this for five years.

As many as 1 million people will die from hepatitis-B in Bangladesh in the next decade or so, and about five per cent of the population are carriers of the deadly hepatitis-B virus, a WHO report predicts.

Meanwhile, WHO officials said there has been no confirmed case of polio in Bangladesh since August, 2000.

But in India, 232 confirmed cases of polio have been reported till date. This is a substantial increase compared to the corresponding period last year. Most cases of polio are in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the WHO officials said.

The confirmed wild polio cases, seven between May 22 and June 26 this year, were identified by the West Bengal government.