Vol , Issue
Date of Publication: May 09, 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2019.024
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Exemplary operational research on an important public health problem
Yogesh Jain
Gajanan Phutke
Abstract:
Rabies is a fatal disease once contracted, and a serious public health problem. Immunisation was unaffordable and inaccessible for most affected people in India. Omesh Bharti’s operational research allows us to reduce the unit dose needed for life saving rabies immunoglobulin (RIG) for class 3 rabid animal bites thereby raising hopes that access to this drug will improve. This study also suggests how public health research should question established guidelines that are rooted in impractical biomedicine without considering sociopolitical realities. The randomised controlled trial as a standard of research methodology is not only impractical but unnecessary. We discuss some of the challenges such as stockout of life saving medicines like RIG and suggest possible solutions. There is still a need to determine the correct RIG dose and the best technique for administering, storage and timing of this important drug.
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©Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2019: Open Access and Distributed under the Creative Commons license ( CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits only non-commercial and non-modified sharing in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.