Family planning vaccine on trial

NEW DEHLI - Women will no longer have to worry about the old family planning methods of contraception once the new family planning vaccine currently under trial at the National Institute of Immunology (NII), in New Delhi, India, is approved. This was revealed by the lead researcher and scientist at NII, Dr. Raul Pal, while addressing a team of Rwandan journalists currently in India on a study tour. “The vaccine for birth control has been tested on several women and there are signs that it will be very effective in controlling unwanted pregnancies among women, and reduce side effects caused by the other contraceptives,” he said. Pal agrees that India faces many diseases and that the development of vaccines is the best way of fighting them in the second most populous country in the world, with an estimated 1.15 billion people. He also says that this project will be effective in the country’s efforts to have firm control on the population growth and the government has been very supportive of the project in terms of state of the art facilities and research material. Research on several areas are being carried out at NIL They include the replacement of needle immunization with skin and air immunization- and on Tetanus (TT), a research that has so far taken seven years under the supervision of Dr. P.K Upadhyay, at the Product Development Centre. “My desire is to see the results of my work and I would like this to happen in my life time. It is something that requires patience and determination,” says Dr. Upadhyay. Ends