Vaccine deaths of babies in Tamil Nadu

The Central Health Minister of India, Dr.Anbumani Ramadass has sent a central team to Tamil Nadu, to inquire into the death of  the four infants after being administered measles vaccine in Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu.

It may be recalled that some Government institutes producing vaccines have been asked to stop manufacturing vaccines, since they had been certified by the WHO as substandard and India has been exporting vaccines produced by the private sector meeting the international standards. While India has been using substandard vaccines for its own children, the vaccines that have been produced conforming to the International standards, have been exported and this has been in practice for over decades, as revealed by Dr.Anbumani Ramadass. That is why Vaccine parks conforming to international standard are coming up in a spacious 200 acres campus nearby Chengalpet in Tamil Nadu.

Within a  few days of the announcement of the proposed establishment of vaccine park, made by the health minister, four infants had died who had been vaccinated with measles vaccine in Thiruvallur District.

The central team coming to India is consisting of experts from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),National Institute of Communicable Diseases(NICD), Directorate General of  Health Services and Drug Controller General of India will visit the area  and submit a report soon.

Meanwhile solatium of Rs 3 lakh each to the family of four children has been announced by the Government of Tamil Nadu.The State Government also suspended  the measles vaccination programme all over the state.

Three healthy baby girls from Thiruvallur and a boy from Venkatapuram village, died in their relatives arms, minutes after they were injected with a measles vaccine at health camps held in these villages.The batch of vaccines were manufactured at the Human Biological Institute at Hyderabad. The Institute was a Public Sector Unit a subsidiary of the  National Diary Development Board, alleged to be having the State of the Art Laboratories, from where a host of  other vaccines for Hepatitis, Rabies,Tetanus and combination doses such as  DPT and MMR are also produced.

When asked what went wrong with the vaccines, it was reported that only tests can determine what was wrong with a particular batch, whose validity expired only in the year 2010.

The measles vaccination in this case, was a monovalent one, which consists of live but weakened viruses cultured in Chick embryo cells, injected into babies, to create antibodies that immunize against measles.Though claims that the babies could have developed allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) to the vaccines have been raised, the usual side effects, if any, are never fatal.

But it seems that the vaccines might have got contaminated or unfit for use perhaps due to the improper management of the vaccine vials when they are used in large scale, breaking the cold chain, therby making the vaccine unfit for use. The exact reason or cause of death of the children will be known only after the thorough enquiry into the incidents.