5-month-old boy dies hours after vaccination

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http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?artid=InwuWPP8WLo= & TitlVannan | ENS19 Sep 2008 03:06:00 AM IST5-month-old boy dies hours after vaccinationCHENNAI: A five-month-old boy died within a day of being administered Hepatitis B, DPT vaccines and polio drops. Vasanthakumari holds on to her dead son’s fingers at her house in Gandhinagar near ICF, in Chennai on Thursday./Shiba prasad sahuSuriya’s parents suspect that a mix up of vaccines at the Corporation’s primary health centre (PHC) in Ayyanavaram is to blame for his death. However, the alleged negligence may go unpunished because they have not lodged a complaint with the police to avoid a post-mortem.Suriya’s mother Vasanthakumari said he was playing in her lap when the doctors vaccinated him around 11.30 am on Wednesday. “Within an hour of reaching home, the baby developed fever.We thought it was normal,” she said. The child’s condition deteriorated when Vasanthakumari gave him a tablet that she got from the PHC to administer in case of fever.“The fever did not subside. He also developed dysentery and by 9 pm he almost collapsed.We rushed him to a private hospital, but were told to go to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital.Around 10.30 pm, when we reached KMCH, the doctors said there was no hope. Then we took him to the Institute of Child Health in Egmore, where the doctors declared that he was brought dead,” Suriya’s father, Rajesh Kannan said.“When the doctors asked us to go for a post-mortem, we did not have the heart to let it be done on a five-month-old child,” said the parents.The doctors of the health centre said they had administered the vaccine to 30 babies, but no other child had developed any complication.Mayor M Subramaniam told Express that a vigilance inquiry had been ordered into the incident and action would be taken on the basis of the findings. =====In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.