Central team: Measles vaccine contamination may have caused deaths

The four children who were administered an anti-measles shot died due to mishandling of the vaccine by the health worker....

The four children who were administered an anti-measles shot died due to mishandling of the vaccine by the health worker,says a four-member team sent by the Union Health Ministry to Madhya Pradesh on Monday to inquire into the deaths.

While the team comprising Dr R S Gupta from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital,Dr Vivek Diwan from National Communicable Disease Control (NCDC) and Dr Balwinder Singh along with an official from the Drug Controller Generals office is yet to give its final report,preliminary investigations show that they died of toxic shock syndrome. The vaccine got contaminated due to the mishandling of the health worker, said Dr A C Dhariwal,Deputy Commissioner,immunisation,in the Health Ministry.

The incident occurred at a government vaccination camp in Damoh district of MP last week. The children who died were below two years the age by which children are immunised against measles sixteen kids had to be hospitalised for constant monitoring.

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The team members investigating the incident say the health worker had taken out the vaccine from the storage condition a day in advance,as a result of which the vaccine got contaminated, added Dr Dhariwal.

Samples of the vaccine have been sent to NCDC in Delhi for examination and the vaccination programme has been suspended.

According to officials in the ministry,while the nurse on duty,Durga Tiwari,has been arrested on charges of negligence,district vaccination officer Anupam Kulshreshta and LHV vaccination centres S Nayak have been suspended.

Last year too,the supply of measles vaccine had to be stopped as a result of measles-related Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) cases which were reported from Aurangabad and Tamil Nadu.

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