Vaccination deaths: Central team visits hospital

A team of officials from the Union Health Ministry visited Shushrusha Nursing Home in Yelahanka New Town on Tuesday, where two infants died after immunisation last month.

The AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunisation) committee members verified the records maintained in the hospital.

Two infants died after they were administered with a dose of Polio, BCG and Hepatitis B vaccination on May 25 at the hospital.  The post-mortem was conducted at the Dr Ambedkar Medical College Hospital and samples sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for histopathology test. 

According to Raghuram Bhandary, State Drug Controller, samples of the drugs seized from the hospital had been sent to the Central Research Institute in Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh and the results were awaited.

Dr H S Shashidhar, Medical Director of the hospital, said the vaccination was not administered by a ward boy, as claimed by the one of the newborns’ father, but by a qualified health worker.  He said that they had discarded the stock of drugs used on the infants and were now using a fresh stock of drugs.

According to an official from the Health department, the AEFI committee members will visit the parents of the infants on Wednesday and a meeting will be held with the State Health Commissioner on Thursday to probe into the death of the infants.
DH News Service