People for Economical and Effective Medicare
(PEEM)
India
[Hyderabad-based People for Economical and Effective Medicare (PEEM) an eight-year-old, voluntary health promotion trust, aims at providing truthful information about all aspects of various common diseases and effective treatment methods in different systems of medicine. The propagation of preventive healthcare has been one among the priorities of the organisation and it has always been in the limelight for its principled stand against all medications that are excessive and unnecessary. As part of its fight against the increasing commercialisation in the field of medicine, it has been discouraging excessive dependence on drugs, doctors and hospitals. Headed by some of the eminent medical practitioners of the city, PEEM is striving towards making `Health, a People''s Movement''¨. The NGO is among the first of all voluntary groups in the health sector to come out against the indiscriminate use of Hepatitis B vaccines in the country. As Dr P V R Bhaskar Rao, chairman, PEEM points out, the birth and growth of PEEM has been simultaneous with the indigenous development of recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine and the aggressive marketing campaign, which followed. PEEM began its campaign against mass vaccination of Hepatitis B, as it wanted to expose the commercial interests of the companies involved in spreading a fear psychosis about the dangers of the virus and the resultant campaigns for vaccination by the vaccine manufacturers. Though its vigorous campaign unleashed in Andhra Pradesh against the vaccine seems to have gone unheeded with AP becoming the first state in the country to go ahead with a mass immunisation programme, PEEM is least affected by the turn of events.]
'One should always keep in mind that if a child or an adult is vaccinated without an informed consent, the legal responsibility for the adverse reactions lies with the physicians who have vaccinated, as also the promoters whether they are voluntary organisations, drug manufacturers or the government itself.'- Dr Bhaskar Rao, Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgeon.
[2002] Mass hep-B vaccination shouldn't be allowed
[2001] Vaccine for Hepatitis B unnecessary, says doctor "A scare is being created among the people that Hepatitis B is fatal without vaccination. The reality is that in 94 per cent of the cases, the victims recover spontaneously without any medical treatment, four per cent are healthy carriers, one per cent can get liver cancer and another one per cent might die,"