What vaccine?

The new health minister of Gujarat, Nitin Patel, appears to be taking his time to get acquainted with his new role. Or perhaps juggling between multiple heavyweight ministries (finance, health and transport) is taking its toll. A company from his home state, Cadila Healthcare (Zydus Cadila), enjoys the credit for being the country’s first company to get the Drug Controller General of India’s approval to market its swine flu vaccines under the brand name Vaxiflu-S in the country in May 2010. But the minister was oblivious to the existence of any vaccine that could combat the recent outbreak of swine flu in the state. Swine flu has claimed over a 100 lives in Gujarat in the last couple of months. Asked if the government is planning to procure more vaccines to curb the outbreak, Patel confidently replied, “What vaccine are you talking about? There is no such vaccine. The only way to combat swine flu is through medication which is Tamiflu.”