Contaminated polio vaccine given to children on hold



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All who have received the vaccine will be monitored to see how the virus behaves in their body. (File)

New Delhi:

After traces of poliovirus type 2 were found in some batches of oral poliovirus vaccine manufactured by a Ghaziabad-based pharmaceutical company, the Ministry of Health asked the polio surveillance team to investigate the problem. Uttar Pradesh to find all vaccinated children.

Since the vaccine was administered as part of the government's universal vaccination program, the ministry also ordered the immediate withdrawal of the vaccine from the manufacturer.

The type 2 poliovirus strain has been eradicated worldwide, including in India.

All children who have received this vaccine will be monitored to determine the behavior of the virus in their body, said an official of the Ministry of Health.

The ministry ordered a probe after traces of poliovirus type 2 were found in some lots of oral polio vaccine (OPV).

The chief executive of Biomed Pvt Ltd., which provided polio vaccines for government-run immunization programs alone, was arrested after the Central Drug Regulator filed a claim for compensation in this case.

India's Comptroller General of Medicines has also asked the company to halt "the manufacture, sale or distribution until new orders".

"The company has five directors, and although the director general has been arrested, we have asked the police to find the other administrators because they must also be questioned," said a government official.

According to the ministry official, the contamination would have been uncovered after Uttar Pradesh surveillance reports showed signs of the virus in the stool samples of some children.

The OPVs were sent for tests that confirmed that some of them were infected with the type 2 virus.

The ministry also alerted the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra on the assumption that the vaccine could be used there.

(This article has not been published by NDTV staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed).

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