Guj mulls import of Congo fever vaccine from Bulgaria

Gujarat government has initiated talks with the Centre to import Congo fever vaccines from Bulgaria, and has put plans of coming up with an indigenous vaccine manufacturing facility on the back-burner.

It had sent a team to the health ministry in Delhi to discuss options to fight the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus (CCHF) outbreak in Gujarat that has claimed three lives so far. Gujarat was initially planning to have a vaccine manufacturing facility here, but now the state health ministry feels that developing the vaccine indigenously can take around one to two year's time.

"We were planning to have bio-safety grade vaccine manufacturing facility here. The National Institute of Virology, Pune (NIV) has already identified the local strain of the virus and is also willing to collaborate with any local pharmaceutical company to manufacture the indigenous vaccine. Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadila had also shown interest in such a venture,"said Jay Narayan Vyas, state health minister.

However, the state government has decided to focus on the availability of intravenous Ribavirin, the current treatment for Congo fever, and put the plan of a vaccine manufacturing facility in the back-burner. "As of now, we will focus on three things; one, the availability of Ribavirin, awareness and cleanliness campaigns against the virus across the state, and also whether imports of the vaccine from Kenya is feasible.", Vyas told Business Standard .

He informed that the Bulgarian vaccine costs around 30 euros for a dose. Bulgaria had developed a vaccine for CCHF in 1974 after it had an outbreak of the virus in 1954-55. "The outbreak in Bulgaria had claimed 485 lives, as the CCHF virus, unlike air-borne diseases, takes more time to spread. It spreads through ticks on animal bodies.", the minister said adding that neighbouring country Pakistan is dealing with CCHF since 1979.

While the Bulgarian vaccine can be of some help in the short term, but India needs to develop an indigenous vaccine, as the CCHF virus develops local strains.

CCHF and Dengue patients have common symptoms for the first four days. If one can isolate Dengu cases in this period, effective treatment of CCHF becomes easy. CCHF is a widespread tick borne viral disease that affects humans. Animals infected by CCHF virus have no problem, but the virus is deadly for human beings. The mortality rate is 30 per cent.