Health card issue: Local chemists tricks hotel staff into buying high-cost Rs 2000 vaccine

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After the inclusion of typhoid vaccination into the mandatory list of health cards, the hotel staff is getting robbed by pharmaceuticals and local chemists in the city. Health staff reaching the chemist shops are given conjugate vaccines instead of polysaccharide ones. The former cost around Rs 2000 while the latter is cheaply available for Rs 200. With a crunch in money, many hotel staffs are not able to go for the Rs 2000 one making them illegal to get a health card.

The vaccines are not available in government hospitals and in Karunya stores which gives a conducive environment for the private chemist to swindle money from the poor. The polysaccharide vaccines are easily available in SIT drug bank near the medical college. It was only during this month that the typhoid vaccination was made mandatory by the central government. February 16th is the deadline for getting a health card, and still many are awaiting a vaccine shot.