12 July 2007
  SciDev.Net Home
Button Register Now
*
button about us
*
button contact us
*
button about this site
*
  *
  Science and Development Network
News, Views and information about science, technology and the developing world
 You are in: SciDev.Net Home > Letters to the Editor Home > Letter to the Editor
*
   
 
*
Button Home
*
*
*
Button Editorial
*
Button News
*
Button Features
*
Button Opinions
*
Button Regional Gateways
*
Button Dossiers
*
*
*
Button Letters to the Editor
*
button book reviews
*
button book announcements
*
button book events
*
button book jobs
*
button book grants
*
Button Links
*
*
*
E-Guide to Science Communication
*
button eguide English
*
button eguide Espanol
*
button eguide Portugues
*
*
*
What's new
*
Button English
*
Button Espanol
*
Button Francais
*
Button Chinese
*
*
Sign up for email alerts
 
*
Button Update
*
Search  
*
button advanced search
*
button site map
0
 
*
*
*
back to Letters to the Editor home  back to letters to the editor 
 print letter print  email letter email  submit letter to editor submit letter to editor
*
Research on Hib vaccine 'dubious'
*
Author: Jacob M Puliyel, M.D.
Affiliation:

Head of Paediatrics

St Stephens Hospital

Delhi, India
Date: 10 July 2007

I was quoted in the Hib vaccine news story from 4 July (see Hib vaccine could save thousands in Asia), but perhaps due to constraints of column space, I feel justice was not done to what I said.

My main argument against the research findings from Bangladesh is not that it does not make economic sense, but that the study is seriously flawed. The visible enthusiasm of the sponsors of the study must not be allowed to cloud scientific objectivity.

In the study, cases of pneumonia were compared with a control group without pneumonia.

Because more children in the control group received the Hib vaccine, the researchers considered the vaccine to prevent pneumonia.

But closer reading of the paper suggests that the Hib vaccination status in the control children was only coincidental.

The control children were significantly richer, lived in better houses and their mothers were better educated. With their greater affluence, more children in the control group probably wore branded T-shirts, but we would not expect Nike or Reebok to suggest that wearing their apparel is protective against pneumonia.

Where starvation and cholera kill thousands of children each year, international agencies such as the GAVI Alliance, USAID and the WHO are busy spending millions on dubious research to emphasise the harm from a disease that local doctors hardly ever come across. All this so that vaccine manufacturers can fill their coffers. This situation can only be described as scandalous.

It is unfortunate that five resource poor countries ― Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka ― have been persuaded to undertake the expensive intervention on the basis of flawed research.

Lois Privor-Dumm says in your report that Bangladesh is eligible for funding for the Hib vaccine from the GAVI Alliance, so they will only have to pay 20 US cents per dose instead of US$5.60 per dose. He failed to mention that there is no long-term assurance of continued GAVI funding, or that funding will be withdrawn soon after universal vaccination becomes government policy.

*
*
back to Letters to the Editor home  back to letters to the editor 
to the top  To the top 
 print letter print  email letter email  Submit letter to editor submit letter to editor
*
*
*
 
Button Regional Gateways
South-East AsiaChinaSouth AsiaMiddle East and North AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaLatin America
*
Button Latin America
*
Button Sub-Saharan Africa
*
Button Middle East and North Africa
*
Button South Asia
*
Button China
*
Button South-East Asia
Dossiers
*
*
Agri-biotech
*
Biodiversity
*
Bird Flu
*
Braindrain
*
Climate change
*
Desert Science
*
Ethics of research
*
HIV/AIDS
Indigenous knowledge
*
Intellectual property
*
Malaria
*
Research and Development
*
Technology Transfer
     
*
*
*