MIP Leprosy Vaccine

World’s first indigenously developed leprosy vaccine was unveiled in March as Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP) leprosy vaccine in Gujarat’s Navasari. It will be later extended to other districts also This vaccine is to be administered to those libing in close contact with infected people. It is also the first vaccine on leprosy and has shown capability to bring down cases by 60% in next three years.

Creating a leprosy vaccine was a difficult job as M Leprae bacterium is not culturable, which means that it simply does not grow in any medium. Hence, to make a dead or attenuated pathogen for injection to generate antibodies was a challenge. In order to address this issue, through 16 different cultivable, atypical members of the mycobacterium family — distant relatives of M Leprae was used and after two decades of work the vaccine was developed. Further, the vaccine was not developed from M Laprae but from what Germans call a Doppelganger (or a double, an imitator). As it was cultivable, it induced the molecule lepromin just as M leprae does, and thus was found fit.

With the launch of this vaccine, a software called Nikusth was also launched to keep track on leprosy patients in the country.