Global-local dialectic in medico-administrative practice - Case study of poliomyelitis

This paper is an analysis of the discursive formation of poliomyelitis in I ndia. The period under consideration is from 1970, prior to the adoption of World Health Organisation's Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) by th e government of India, to the first National Pulse Polio Immunisation Campa ign held during 1995-96 The change in slate policy from management and cont rol of the disease to its eradication is an outcome of the interaction betw een local and global factors in international health. The interface between the Indian state and the medical profession foregrounds the discussion in the present paper Indian researchers have questioned the OPV immunisation r egime promoted by the global EPI: A survey of Indian paediatric literature reveals that concerns with vaccination efficacy and the immunisation schedu le are accorded prime importance in the medical research on poliomyelitis: The review of the medical literature shows how studies on country-specific pathogenesis of vaccine preventable diseases result in recommendations for alternative vaccine regimes that contest the universal norms put forward by the global EPI.