Child dies, family blames triple dose of vaccines
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Child-dies--family-blames-triple-dose-of-vaccines/550898
Dec 07, 2009 at 0429 hrs Mumbai:
A two-month-old baby girl died a day after she was administered oral pulse polio drops along with Hepatitis B vaccine and DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus) vaccine at a health post in Bhandup, on Saturday morning. The family of the infant, Dhrushti Pingle, alleged that the death was caused by the vaccines.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s immunization in charge Dr Mangala Gomare confirmed the death but said it could be due to other reasons. “It could be an adverse event following immunization. Right now we cannot comment whether it is related or just a co-incidence. It is true that the baby was healthy before the immunization, however, only after we get the post mortem reports, can we be sure about the cause of death.”
The family alleged that Dhrushti’s death was due to the vaccines. “She was a healthy baby. At 11 pm on Saturday she suddenly started crying while playing and her nose started bleeding too. We rushed her to Rajawadi Hospital around 3 am on Sunday but she died early in the morning,” said Pandurang Patil, Dhrushti’s uncle.
Dr Gomare said that other children who were administered same vaccines were fine. “About 90 other children were administered vaccines from the same batch but no such incident has been reported,” said Dr Gomare.
Meanwhile, pulse polio immunization drive in the city was conducted smoothly though turnout was low. Only 61 percent children were immunized on the booth day on Sunday. About 7.94 lakh of the targeted 13 lakh children between age group 0-5 years were administered the vaccine. “We had instructed our health workers not to go door-to-door to encourage parents to administer polio drops, this could be one of the reasons for the low turnout. However, we will cover all the children in the extended immunization programme through the week,” said Dr Gomare.