13 July,2010 10:49 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan
MiD DAY discovers state doctors, health workers avoided swine flu vaccine as govt wanted them to sign consent form
Three months after the preventive French vaccine for swine flu arrived in the city, not even 10 per cent of the stocks has been utilised. The free vaccine that was to be provided only to doctors and healthcare workers who were at maximum risk of contracting swine flu met with stiff opposition.
Only about 2,600 doses out of total 34,300 doses found takers in the district in three months.
MiD DAY decided to investigate the reason why the medicos were unwilling to take the medicine that was being provided to them by the state, free of cost.
Senior doctors on condition of anonymity told MiD DAY that the real reason for the failure of the vaccine was the insistence of the government to pass the buck of side effects tou00a0 the medical practitioners taking the vaccine.
"The government wanted doctors to sign a consent form saying they knew what the vaccine was all about and were willingly taking it," said a senior doctor. "It also included an undertaking that if there are any side effects of the medicine then the government is not to be blamed for it and the doctors take full responsibility for it."
A number of doctors in private and public sector confirmed such a clause.
"The consent form also said that in case of side effects to vaccine all medical expenses were to be borne by the doctor himself," said senior pediatrician Dr Dilip Sarda.
Fear factor
"Doctors anyway are scared as they don't know whether proper trials were carried out or not for the imported vaccine," said a senior doctor from Mumbai's KEM Hospital preventive and social medicine department. "And on top of that if they are asked to take full responsibility why will they put their career at stake for a free vaccine of Rs 300?"
"While doctors had refused to take the foreign vaccine even though it was free of cost for various reasons, they have gone ahead and taken Serum Institute's intra-nasal vaccine. About 30 doctors from Indian Medical Association (IMA) have taken the vaccine in two days," said Dr Sharad Agharkhedkar, president of IMA (Pune chapter).
