Hepatitis B India People for Economical and Effective Medicare
Vaccine for Hepatitis B unnecessary, says doctor
By Our Staff Reporter
2001
HYDERABAD, FEB. 4. Is Hepatitis B vaccine really necessary? Not necessary, said Dr. P.V. R. Bhaskar Rao of the People for Economical and Effective Medicare, a Voluntary Health Promotional Trust. He feels that the hype about vaccination for the disease being done for the last five years was only because of the vaccine manufacturers.
"A scare is being created among the people that Hepatitis B is fatal without vaccination. The reality is that in 94 per cent of the cases, the victims recover spontaneously without any medical treatment, four per cent are healthy carriers, one per cent can get liver cancer and another one per cent might die," explained Dr. Rao to presspersons here on Saturday.
The virus gets into the body similar to the dreaded AIDS such as blood transfusion, drug abuse, unprotected sexual contact and from a carrier mother to child. "These days the blood is invariably tested for AIDS and other diseases while public awareness and education is required on matters like unprotected sex and drug abuse. However, in case of a Hepatitis B virus carrying mother, the child needs to be vaccinated," he said.
Dr. Rao said compulsory vaccination was not at all required and even the Association of Physicians and Surgeons of United States had demanded a moratorium on it. Research in England had shown that vaccination would lead to neurological problems. "There are four versions of the Hepatitis viruses - `A', `B', `C' & `D' and till date a vaccine is available only for `B', hence the noise about vaccination. The same will happen once vaccines are found for other viruses too," Dr. Rao argued.
It was time the doctors and pharmaceutical units provide the right information to the general public, he demanded. Dr. Rao invited people who had adverse reaction to the vaccinations to get in touch with his organisation at Ph.No. 4753957. "We want to build a pressure group to enlighten the Government," he added.