Though it may sound unbelievable, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommendation to introduce pneumococcal vaccine for preventing pneumonia in children in the national immunization programmes of the third world countries has come under cloud.

A group of public interest groups in India have asked the WHO to re-examine the way recommendations for introducing vaccines for national immunisation programmes all over the world are arrived at by the WHO. Their criticism comes in the wake of the finding that “for every four children in whom pneumonia is prevented, two children develop asthma because of the vaccine.”

Expressing doubt over the world health body’s recommendation to include pneumococcal vaccine for preventing pneumonia in children in the national immunization programmes, the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), a network of NGOs working to increase access and improve the rational use of essential medicine, in a letter to WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said, “The WHO recommendations seem dictated by needs of increasing demand for vaccines and profits for manufacturers rather than the needs of public health.”

The NGOs appealed to the WHO to re-examine how recommendations are arrived at by the WHO or else repeated exposures of this nature will erode the very credibility of the WHO.

The WHO is such an esteemed and unquestioned body on health affairs, it should not have come under doubt at all. It should not give such a chance to anybody in future to point their fingers at them.

After all, crores of young and unsuspecting lives, especially in the third world countries, are at stake.