[India] Merck gives rubella vaccine to India after outbreak

from The Press of Atlantic City

The Associated Press

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (AP) - Drugmaker Merck & Co. has donated 55,000 doses of its vaccine against the viral illness rubella following an outbreak in India earlier this year.

AmeriCares, a nonprofit international humanitarian aid group, said that it delivered the doses of Meruvax on Wednesday. They will be given to people in Mumbai in western Maharashtra, an area of extreme poverty.

Distribution to health clinics in the region will be monitored by the Impact India Foundation, a longtime partner of Stamford, Conn.-based AmeriCares that helps poor and disabled people in India.

The rubella virus can cause congenital heart disease, impaired vision and hearing loss; it also can cause mental retardation and limit growth in babies whose mothers are infected during pregnancy.

Since the vaccine was launched in 1969, U.S. rubella cases have fallen considerably, but many countries, including India, do not have vaccination programs against rubella.