Central team says Pentavalent Vaccine safe ‘Babies died due to Pneumonia, Septicemia, Meningitis’ Srinagar, Oct 14: A day after Medical Education Minister Taj Mohiuddin said that Pentavalent vaccine is not fake, a five-member Health and Family Welfare Ministry team Monday said the recent baby deaths in Kashmir have not occurred because of the vaccine. “No death has taken place because of immunization of Pentavalent vaccine,” Chairman, Adverse Events Following Immunizations (AEFI) Committee, Professor N.K. Arora told reporters here. He said the team arrived in Kashmir after J&K Government informed the Central Government about the deaths. “For last three days we are here to investigate infant deaths. We did not find any death due to Pentavalent vaccine,” Arora said, adding that these deaths have taken place because of Pneumonia, Septicemia and Meningitis while some of the babies were suffering from liver disorders. Eight babies have died in recent days here. “Seven have died in GB Pant Hospital and one in SKIMS Bemina,” Prof. Arora said adding that the age of dead babies was between 45 days to four and a half months. Medical Superintendent of GB Pant Hospital, Dr Muneer Masoodi, had Friday blamed Pentavalent vaccine for recent baby deaths in the hospital. The MS had said that children develop allergy and vomiting after being administered the vaccine. “Later their recovery is very difficult,” he had said. “Based on our casualty assessment under new WHO algorithm, which takes into account the clinical features of children and health system issues, we found that these children were having illnesses which commonly occur in their age group,” Prof. Arora said. Septicemia (Blood Infection) was the major cause of these unfortunate deaths, he said. Professor Arora, a pediatrician, said they checked the records at GB Pant Hospital and also met families whose children died. “We checked the records and discussed the related things in clinical sense. We went through the laboratory records of these children. Our aim was to reach to the bottom of the problem.” On Sunday, Prof Arora said, they visited Budgam, Pulwama and Shopian districts to meet the parents of these children. The Chairman of the panel said the purpose of their visit to these districts was three-fold. First, to study the whole health system and the way immunization is given in the State. The second objective, Arora said, was to get first hand information from the parents whose infants had died. “We visited six house- holds during the field visit,” he said adding that the third objective was to do epidemiological investigation. “We had discussion with the community living in the surroundings of these unfortunate infants,” he informed. Prof Arora said they also had extensive informal interactions and in-depth interviews with the State Immunization Officers, Program Managers as well as State Health Directorate officials. “We synthesized the information and on Monday morning we had brief discussion with the G.B. Pant Hospital faculty headed by Medical Superintendent and we also gave our feed back to State Health Minister.” Prof Arora disclosed that they investigated 12 cases which were reported as AEFI out of which 8 were reported to be death cases while 4 were admitted with some symptoms and they were later on discharged in good health from the hospital. “Out of eight, seven deaths have taken place in GB Pant Hospital,” he said. He informed that the team went through the G.B Pant Hospital records. “Sick children are being managed in an excellent manner and we were able to get answers to most of our questions,” he said. The pediatrician said that they checked the admission and mortality rate of 2012 and 2013 in GB Pant Hospital. “We did not find any change in the trend of either in admission rates or in the causes of mortality in this age group. Prior to the introduction of Pentavalent or later, there is no significant or consistent change in the rates of death of infants,” he said. The chairman AEFI panel said that they feel that Pentavalent vaccine is not associated with the deaths in these children. “It is equally important to emphasize that there was no program error and it is running very well,” he claimed. Prof Arora said that for past many years J&K State has not reported any AEFI case, so the system of AEFI in this State needs strengthening. “It is only during last one month that most of the cases were reported from one hospital and clearly there is enhanced surveillance activity which has been started by G.B. Pant Hospital in the State,” he said. Another member of the central government panel, Dr Khera, on this occasion said that since the introduction of Pentavalent vaccine in Jammu and Kashmir, 2.5 lakh doses have been administered to children. Prof Arora said that they can’t comment on any matter which is beyond their mandate. “We would not make the report public as it is very confidential,” he said adding that before the press conference they met J&K Health Minister. “We discussed things in detail with him.”
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 01:34:26 +0000
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