World's first made-in-India leprosy vaccine to be out on trial basis

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Immunology in New Delhi has developed an exclusive and completely domestic vaccine for leprosy.

World's maiden leprosy vaccine, dubbed as mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP), is to be launched on trial basis within a few weeks in the five districts of Bihar and Gujarat, where the problem is sharpest. If it shows positive results, the vaccine program will be then expanded as a pan-India operation.

According to Sputnik News, The vaccine was developed by founder-director of the National Institute of Immunology (NII) G. P. Talwar, who said "An immunotherapeutic vaccine for leprosy has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India and US Food and Drug Administration. The new made-in-India vaccine is mainly developed as a preventive measure for the people living in close contact with the infected ones. It is also effective for curing anogenital warts and some cancers."

Leprosy is a chronic, progressive bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae and affects around 1.25 lakhs people in India annually.

Although our country is officially leprosy free, but 60% of the world's leprosy patients are from India. Jagat Prakash Nadda, Health Minister, said that there are 107 districts in India where Prevalence Rate (PR) is more than one in 10,000.

The trials have the potential to lower the existing rates by 65% over three years, as per Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the director-general of the India Council of Medical Research.