A day after the death of four infants soon after being administered the measles vaccine in Baska district in Lower Assam, the state government has dismissed allegations that the deaths were caused by the vaccine. “Measles vaccines are prepared by the Human Biological Institute at Hyderabad, and they have no past history of causing death to human beings,” Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said here on Thursday. The infants have been identified as Prabin Barman (1 year), December Barla (11 months), Bhagyashri Swargiari (9 months) and Bikash Dorjee (1 year). All of them belonged to four different villages that are under jurisdiction of the Nimua PHC.Sharma indicated that the deaths could be related to the high infant mortality rate (IMR) prevalent in the state. “Assam has a mortality rate of 66 per 1,000 live births. These kinds of deaths will continue to occur until the IMR is brought down drastically to three or four,” the minister said. Assam’s infant mortality rate has been pegged as the fourth highest in the country by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) III while the Sample Registration Survey (SRS) of 2007 put it at 66 against a national average of 55 per 1,000 live births. The IMR in rural Assam is even higher at 70. A Unicef estimate released here last week, on the other hand, had said that as many as 132 infants die in Assam daily. Coupled with the estimate of 175 children below five also dying every day, the total number of children who die in Assam comes to an alarming 307 per day.“The government is 100 per cent sure that the deaths were not caused by the measles vaccine,” health minister Sharma said. “I have consulted at least 50 pediatricians including the head of the department in the Guwahati Medical College, and everybody is of the same opinion that vaccines do not cause deaths,” he said.Over 5,000 infants had been administered the vaccine in health centres across the state. “If it had some problem, then there would have been more deaths,” he added.Meanwhile, a five-member team dispatched by the Union Health Ministry that arrived on Thursday went to Baska and made an assessment of the situation apart from taking statements of doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff in all the sub-centres under Nimua PHC. The state government has also sent a three-member team to the district. The state government announced an ex gratia of Rs one lakh to the parents of the infants.
