Indian Doctors: WHO Siphoning MDG Funds

[Guest guest]

VERY SERIOUS CHARGE  I MUST SAY - Jagannath.

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Gopal Dabade <drdabade

 

Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 10:24 AM

PHA-Exch> Advance Marketing Commitment (AMC) for pneumococcal vaccineis

siphoning off MDG funds

PHM <pha-exchange, aidanindia <aidanindia >

 

Cc: Jacob Puliyel <puliyel, Janaarogya Andolana

<jaak >

 

 

 

 

Dear friends at PHM,

 

Persons have reacted with disbelief at our posting on the WHO response to our

letter titled “WHO to blame for dangerous child vaccine?†which was posted

on PHM e-forum dated 24th April 2009 on the pneumococcal vaccine. AIDAN

(http://aidanindia.wordpress.com/) and its members now call for a wider debate

on how MDG funds and GAVI funds are utilized.

 

 

The pneumococcal vaccine illustrates the problem quite neatly. Madhi et al in

the Bull WHO (http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/10/08-056572.pdf) have

given data on the numbers actually helped by the vaccine. 1,000

children need to be vaccinated to prevent 4 cases of pneumonia. Given

that the vaccine costs Rs 12,000 per child (US $ 250) in India, Rs 12

million (US $250,000) will be spent to prevent these 4 cases of

pneumonia that would cost Rs 40 (US $1) to treat. This is the vaccine

about which AIDAN wrote to the DG WHO and the reply dated 3rd April 2009

suggests that there seems to be a complete disconnect with the ground

realities*.

 

 

The reply sates:-

 

 “We

think that the introduction of pneumococcal vaccines, where merited by

evidence of the disease burden, would be of tremendous benefit, saving

many lives, particularly of children. WHO stands ready to assist its

Member States to assess the need for the use of specific new vaccines,

to aid in decision-making, prioritization and introduction, and to work

on solutions for financing them. We look forward to creating a world

where no person should die of a vaccine-preventable disease and to

cooperating with countries and partners to realize this goal.â€

 

 

By entering into AMC (Advance Marketing Commitments for vaccines, accessed at

http://www.vaccineamc.org/)

with vaccine manufacturers to market this vaccine in developing

countries MGD and GAVI funds are being siphoned off to vaccine

manufacturers without commensurate benefits to the children in

developing countries.

 

 

We

call on PHM members and other like minded groups and individuals to

lobby with their governments to demand more answerability from WHO on

how it spends scarce MDG and GAVI funds

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Gopal Dabade

 

Dr Jacob Puliyel

All India Drug Action Network,

 

(http://aidanindia.wordpress.com/)

*The correspondence can be accessed at:-

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0cf52d0d2e2f36617069484bded33bcdc16827562d880\

744

 

 

 

--

http://novartisboycott.org/petition

 

Dr Gopal Dabade,

57, Tejaswinagar,

Dharwad 580 002

Tel 0836-2461722

Cell (0)9448862270

 

www.jagruti.org

 

http://aidanindia.wordpress.com/

www.daf-k.cjb.net

 

---

 

PHA-Exchange is hosted on Kabissa - Space for change in Africa

 

To post, write to: PHA-Exchange

 

Website: http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/pha-exchange

 

 

 

 

“The world is moving ahead but our lives have become harder.â€

- Nikheil, small farmer from Kohima, India.

 

 

 

Now surf faster and smarter ! Check out the new Firefox 3 - Edition

http://downloads./in/firefox/?fr=om_email_firefox