'Vaccination a birthright'
Vaccination is a birthright and the government should ensure it for every citizen, a veteran physician who taught at Chittagong Medical College Hospital said here yesterday.
"Like clean drinking water, vaccination is also a basic right of every citizen", Prof Dr SAR Chowdhury said at the first Vaccine Summit of GlaxoSmithkline (GSK) Bangladesh Ltd, a medicine manufacturing company, in Chittagong Club auditorium.
GSK managing director M Azizul Huq said vaccines are the best investment in healthcare as they prevent diseases and thus save lives.
Azizul said GSK offers very lower prices for vaccines in Bangladesh. He said vaccine price in the developing countries is 75 percent lower than that in the developed countries. "If the price of a vaccine is $1 in America, its price is fixed at just 25 cents in Bangladesh".
Azizul said GSK is providing free vaccines through Extended Programme for Immunisation (EPI) to developing countries as part of its corporate social responsibilities (CSR).
About 100 doctors, especially paediatrics and gynaecologists, attended the conference while some of them presented research papers demonstrating the importance and efficacy of different vaccines on human beings. The subject matters of the papers were GSK vaccines, cancer and vaccination, rotavirus vaccination, pneumonia vaccines, and infant protection.
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