India Testing New Leprosy Vaccine

Sixty percent of the global leprosy patients live in India
old indian man
Asia (Vax-Before-Travel News)

In 2005, the Indian government declared the disfiguring Hansen's disease (leprosy) no longer a public health issue. Fast forward to 2016.

India is now accounting for more than 60 percent of the world's new cases, as well as the most cases of patients with visible deformities from leprosy.

Indian health authorities recently announced they would soon roll out a clinical trial of the vaccine Mycobacterium Indicus Pranii (MIP). The trials will be concentrated in five districts. This vaccine will be administered as prevention for people living in close contact with those infected by the bacteria.

In the 1980s, Indian researcher Gursaran Prasad Talwar developed the MIP vaccine at India’s National Institute of Immunology.

In 2005, the results of a field trial in northern India were found to be extremely promising, but with the government declaring India leprosy-free that year, the MIP soon went out of focus.

“In the early field trials of the MIP, the vaccine’s protective efficacy was found to be quite encouraging, with 68.6 percent of people being protected for four years and 59 percent being protected for eight years. This vaccine also expedites cure rates to people already infected with the disease,” said Dr. Utpal Sengupta, a leading New Delhi-based leprosy researcher.

In a statement, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, which is working with the government on the rollout of the MIP trial, said the government has embarked on a “multi-pronged attack” on leprosy.

Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, primarily affecting the peripheral nerves and skin. Among infectious diseases, leprosy is a leading cause of permanent physical impairment. Three major endemic countries (India (60%), Brazil and Indonesia) account for 81% of all new leprosy cases.

The basic principles for leprosy control are based on early diagnosis and treatment with multidrug therapy (MDT). Although bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination was originally developed as a vaccine against TB, it has also been demonstrated to offer protection against leprosy.

“Early detection actually hinges upon getting people to know what the disease is all about. It’s about spreading the knowledge about the disease and the knowledge that leprosy should be detected early. People should know what are the signs and symptoms of leprosy, what are dangerous symptoms and what are the disease’s early signs and symptoms,” said Dr. Jerry Joshua, a surgeon at the Leprosy Mission Trust India.

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Article by
Don Hackett