Experience Of Past Vaccination Can Be Of Help

Context: While India is grappling with the gigantic task of administering the vaccines, past experiences provide a guide to effective vaccination.

Key Challenges in Administering Covid-19 Vaccine

• Lab-to-manufacturer path of vaccine is not simple: and must be documented because manufacturers need research and development of their own to move to large-scale production.
• Thus,  there arises a question whether the Biotech’s Covaxin should be known as NIV-Bharat Biotech vaccine, giving a due share of credit to the National Institute Of Virology.

Way Forward: Looking at the past efforts towards vaccination to find the solutions:

• Smallpox vaccine in 1802: was administered after it was discovered and developed by Jenner in 1798.
• Cholera vaccine trials in 1893: Dr Haffkine developed it before he came to India and later developed the plague vaccine at his laboratory in 1897. (ran into trouble because a few persons died in Punjab.)
• The deaths caused by the plague vaccine were documented, and it was the first instance of Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI).
• Typhoid vaccine trials in 1904-08: conducted on British Army personnel stationed in India.
• Setting up of Vaccine research institutes: like the Central Research Institute in Kasauli in 1904-05 and the Pasteur Institute of Southern India in Coonoor in 1907. 
• Institutional frameworks: From Compulsory Vaccination Act passed in 1892 to the Universal Immunisation Programme of 1985.