Vaccine void

Why do we have to wait for donors to supply us with emergency Japanese Encephalitis vaccines?

Among vector-borne diseases, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is the leading cause of death in Nepal. Last year, 23 people succumbed to it, including one in the national capital, and over 80 infections were reported. This year, there was a sharp spike in infections in some 10 days as the number of cases rose from 13 to 33 across 18 districts, resulting in three deaths. With a fatality rate of over nine percent among infected people, the disease, which killed nearly 2,000 people in the country in 2005, has consistently caused suffering. Consequently, in 2006, Nepal started administering vaccine doses, eight years before the World Health Organisation had officially certified the vaccine, due to high rates of infections and deaths.