Shantetra, the first indigenously developed combination vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and hepatitis-B has been launched to protect children against the four life threatening diseases.
Shantha Biotechnics Limited, a pioneer in health care industry has manufactured and marketed the product keeping in line with the worldwide trend of switching to combination vaccines.The new combination vaccine serves to fulfill a part the universal immunisation schedule against DTP and Hepatitis B and saves repeated vaccination in children, thereby reducing the associated pain.
A child should get three doses each of the two vaccines before he reaches the age of 18 months. The combination vaccine would be supplied for less than Rs.100 to doctors.
Globally 130 million children are born every year and over 30 million of them do not receive any immunisation against basic childhood infections. Three million of these children die at an early age. The main targets for the vaccine would be India and supra-national customers like UNICEF and WHO.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
