Another infant dies after vaccination

Yet another infant has died allegedly because of the adverse effects of immunisation; more particularly, HIB vaccine rendered at a private hospital.

According to the family of the victim, a two-and-a-half-month-old girl, she was rendered HIB vaccine at around 1.30pm on Friday at a private hospital in Chembur, and found dead on Saturday morning.

A family member said, “The HIB vaccine was administered as part of routine vaccination. After that, the baby was fine but this morning, we found that she had turned pale and was lying motionless. We realised that she was dead. We took her to the same hospital again. However, the doctor and staff arrived one hour later and attempted to hush up the matter.”

The family then lodged a complaint at the RCF police station. A police official said that a case has been registered and the infant’s body has been sent to J.J. Hospital for post-mortem. The official added, "The family has alleged that the baby died as a result of the vaccination. However, we will get to know the real reason behind the death once we receive the post-mortem report.”

On November 21 last year, a two-month-old child died in Chandrapur district within 48 hours of vaccination. Following this, the Maharashtra Health Department prohibited use of Diptheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTP) vaccine of a particular batch. The Asian Age, in its story titled “State ill-equipped to screen kids” reported that the state lacked infrastructure to investigate associated health issues of infants before vaccinating them, which could lead to hospitalisation and death.