A BCG vaccine that could be given to adults to prevent tuberculosis is being developed and would be ready for vaccination within three years. The Hyderabad-based Mahavir Hospital and Research Centre, which completed 25 years on Tuesday, in association with Sequella Foundation of the US, is now working on a BCG vaccine to make it effective on adults too.

At present, BCG vaccine is given to children on birth. It is not effective on adults. With the number of TB cases on the rise in the country, especially Andhra Pradesh, Mahavir Hospital has embarked on the programme to develop a refined version of the BCG vaccine that could be administered even to adults.

Stating that India had 40 % of the world's TB patients, Dr KJR Murthy, pulmonologist of the hospital, said the spread of TB in the state was much faster than the spread of HIV. Based on a study conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), while only 2 % of HIV-infected pregnant women transmitted the disease to children, about 60-70 % of TB-infected mothers transmitted the ailment to the newborns.

Dr Murthy said the new BCG vaccine would be available within three years after the mandatory clinical trials. While Sequella Foundation would provide the know-how, Shanta Biotech would produce the vaccine in the country.

The hospital was also carrying out research on asthma in collaboration with CCMB and on tuberculosis in association with CDFD (Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics).

As part of the silver jubilee celebrations, Mahavir Hospitals had decided to shift its focus towards extending medicare to the rural masses. Having completed 25 years of service in providing quality and affordable medicare to the needy in the city, Mahavir Hospital is now ready to extend the facilities to the rural people in the Rangareddy district through the Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences at Shivareddypet, near Vikarabad.

As a first step towards rendering the services of the hospital to people in the surrounding areas, a community healthcare project was launched on Tuesday, the auspicious occasion of Bhagwan Mahavir Jayanthi. The occasion also marked the commencement of the year-long silver jubilee celebrations of Mahavir Hospital.

Home Minister T Devender Goud flagged off the ambulance service for four community centres at Pargi, Moinabad, Chevella and Tandur. One more community centre will be opened at a place yet to be identified in Rangareddy district.

According to Shantilal Daga, Chairman of the Mahavir Memorial Trust, the Mahavir Insitute of Medical Sciences would comprise a 300-bed general hospital and a medical college with a student intake of 100. The Rs 25 crore hospital complex, constructed on a sprawling 35 acre plot, though started functioning partially, will be fully operational from June. The hospital-cum-medical college will provide free outpatient services, conduct laboratory tests on a cost-to-cost basis and levy nominal charges on in-patients.

Daga said the medical college would commence teaching from the academic year 2003-04. The proposed medical college had received the Essentiality Certificate from the State Government and the in-principle consent for affiliation from NTR University of Health Sciences. The initial student intake of 100 would be increased to 150 in due course. The bed strength of the general hospital would also be increased to 750 in the near future.

The hospital had also decided to extend its joint public-private programme for the control of tuberculosis to five mandals in Mehboobnagar district. The programme has been sponsored by the World Health Organisation. The hospital created a network of 320 doctors in Rangareddy and Medak districts who would collect sputum from the patients and send them to the hospital. The hospital would then conduct tests on the samples and suggest appropriate treatment. The network doctors would administer the medicines to the patients.