How would you react if you were told that your child had contracted a lifelong ailment because of the side-effects of a vaccine that is part of the government's immunisation programme? And what if it's discovered that the vaccine didn't even offer protection in the first place against the disease it was meant to provide immunity from? It all sounds incredible, but may well be true if foreign donor agencies and pharmaceutical firms have their way with the government. It has been revealed that the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (pcv), a vaccine against pneumonia that the Union ministry of health and family welfare reportedly plans to include in a year's time in its universal immunisation programme, causes severe respiratory disorder in every one child among a thousand vaccinated. For India, that could potentially mean several thousands of victims of asthma and respiratory diseases. Not only that, the vaccine, which covers seven strains of the pneumococcus bacteria, has been found to be ineffective against the most common form of pneumonia