From: bala@ulysses.att.com (Bala Krishnamurthy)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: India Testing World's 1st Birth-Control Vaccine
Keywords: Birth Control Vaccine Test
Date: 9 Oct 92 15:21:41 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


apnews reports:
	   NEW DELHI, India (AP) _ Scientists in India have created the
world's first birth-control vaccine for women, effective for an
entire year with a single injection, according to preliminary
tests.
	   ``This is a very good vaccine. It may not be in its optimal
form, but it certainly shows that a birth-control vaccine can
work,'' said Dr. Rosemarie Thau of the New York-based Population
Council, a non-profit research organization.
	   The vaccine's inventors, who have conducted clinical tests for
seven years, believe it is safe, effective and reversible. But it
will be several years before nationwide tests are completed and it
can be sold in India.
	   ``We have proved that the vaccine does indeed protect women
without any side affects. That's a very important milestone,'' said
Dr. Gursaran Prasad Talwar, a leading immunologist conducting the
vaccine project.
	   The vaccine does not prevent pregnancy, but stops the fertilized
egg from sticking to the wall of the uterus. Pregnancy is naturally
terminated within a week.
	   It is the first birth-control device that makes use of a woman's
immune system. All other methods either physically block
contraception _ such as condoms, diaphragms, IUDs and sterilization
_ or use steroids and hormones that are foreign to the body _ such
as the pill or Norplant.
	   Talwar's team was spurred on by India's desperate need for an
answer to the rapid population growth, which is seen as the biggest
hurdle to this country's emergence from poverty.
	   Thau said Population Council scientists and others in several
countries including the United States also are trying to create a
birth-control vaccine, but so far none has claimed success equal to
that announced by Talwar.
	   ``He is the most advanced. Nobody else is near Dr. Talwar,''
Thau, the director of the Population Council's Contraceptive
Development program, said in a telephone interview.
	   She said her group and Talwar, a senior scientist of the New
Delhi-based National Institute of Immunology, regularly exchange
information on the progress of their research.
	   The vaccine has been successfully tried on 174 women in India,
said institute spokesman Suresh Chandran. The vaccine starts
wearing off after one year, when another booster shot is needed.
	   India's population could bypass China's early next century by
growing from 875 million people to 2 billion, according to a new
study by the Washington-based Population Crisis Committee.
	   ``Our population is the highest priority problem. It decimates
whatever progress we make,'' said Talwar.
	   When he announced plans to work on the vaccine in 1974, he was
called a crackpot.
	   ``But I also received some bouquets,'' he said. ``It will now be
our endeavor and hope that before the decade closes we will have a
vaccine that is usable and affordable.''
	   The Indian government's 40-year-old family planning program has
floundered because of its concentration on sterilization.
	   Because it is irreversible, sterilization appeals primarily to
older women who have completed childbearing, said Gurdayal Chadha
of the Family Planning Association of India.
	   He said condoms and pills are not easily available in villages,
which form 70 percent of India.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian