Vaccination marketing by private healthcare sector: glaring malpractices

ABSTRACT

The editorial by Jesani and Johari in this journal raises some contentious yet relevant ethical issues pertaining to vaccination practices in India. Vaccination is one of the most important preventive measures against infectious diseases. The eradication of smallpox in the 70s and near eradication of polio are testimony to this. The Government of India (GoI) has recently added a few new vaccines in its Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP), one of the largest public health programmes across the globe. The number of vaccines delivered through this public health programme has doubled from six in 1985 to twelve in 2017. However, important vaccines are still not part of UIP and hence are being given through the private sector. These include vaccines against typhoid, chickenpox, hepatitis-A, HPV, MMR, etc