Another influenza wave may strike this winter

The number of infected patients reported from July till September this year has gone up this year. This pattern has been observed even in Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Vellore, said Dr Prajakt Borde, Assistant Medical Director, Serum Institute of India. The pharmaceutical company had brought out an intra-nasal vaccine H1N1 Influenza Nasovac, in June.

According to Dr Borde, cases reported from June this year accounted for a fourth of the total cases reported since last year, when the pandemic spread in India. Also, Karnataka stands second in terms of mortality and morbidity in the country. Compared to 169 deaths last year, 79 deaths have already been recorded since June.

Giving details about the vaccine, he said that the Institute has supplied about 20 lakh doses Nasovac across the country since the last four months, with Karnataka vouching for roughly 2.5 lakh vaccines since July. While the first batch of vaccines will get expired by November, Dr Borde assured that fresh stock is already being supplied to various chemists in the country.

However, "The person taking the vaccine will be protected from the current strain of virus, for lifelong. And, this will be effective for next two years i.e. 2012. However, if there is a different virus strain, we will develop a new vaccine to tackle it," he added. The institute is also looking at exporting the vaccine to African countries.

Seasonal Influenza

Serum Institute is in the process of developing seasonal flu vaccine. "The clinical trials are about to start. We will directly do phase three trials as we have been making the flu vaccine for some time now," Dr Borde said. It is expected to come out by next year.