Gates offers govt $110mn for 5-in-one shot rollout

NEW DELHI: India is all set to roll out the five-in-one vaccine shot in two states soon. The Union health ministry officials told Bill and Melinda Gates on Tuesday that the long awaited pentavalent vaccine would be rolled out as a pilot project in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Both these states have high routine immunization coverage rate.

Bill Gates is, however, keen for the introduction of the pentavalent vaccine across five states. He offered $110 million to fund the project. However, the ministry officials explained it to him that the roll-out has to be staggered due to the coming assembly polls.

Officials told TOI that "introducing the pentavalent vaccine is under our active consideration. We are ready to roll it out in two states".