Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Oct 14: Minister for Health, Shabir Ahmad Khan, today said that Government will take action against the Medical Superintendent of the G B Pant hospital, Srinagar for spreading panic in the State after he attributed the recent child deaths in the hospital to pentavalent vaccine.
When asked about what action the Government will take against the Medical Superintendent of the G B Pant hospital, Dr Munir Masoodi, for holding pentavalent vaccine responsible for recent child deaths in the hospital that caused panic in the State, the Minister said: “We will take action after examining the report.”
The Minister admitted that there was a panic in the State over the deaths being attributed to the pentavalent vaccine. “There was a panic and that is the reason we called an expert team from Central Government to determine the cause of deaths”, he said.
“This vaccine is being administered to children across the country. We will not stop its application in the State as expert team has given a clean chit to the vaccine and said it is safe”, said Khan.
Earlier, Prof N K Arora, Paediatrician, Chairman of National Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI), told a news conference in Srinagar that the pentavalent vaccine didn’t cause any child deaths in the State.
“There is no significant cause or causes of death. We feel the vaccine is not associated with deaths in these children and we found no programme error”, said Professor Arora.
The chairman AEFI said that the team found that the cause of the death of these six children were illness which are common in the early age. “We found that these children were having illness, which are common in this age group of 45 days to 4-5 months. These six children who died were suffering from septicaemia, meningitides, pneumonia and liver disorder. These deaths were caused mostly by septicaemia”, he said.
Prof Arora said that Government of India constituted a 5-member team of experts after Jammu and Kashmir Government informed it about the six deaths have taken place due to pentavalent vaccine.
It may be mentioned here that Superintendent of the GB Pant hospital had stated that the deaths were caused by pentavalent vaccine that caused panic in the State.
The chairman AEFI said: “We visited Srinagar, Budgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts and we noted the cold chain in the Primary Health Centres, recorded the temperatures at which the vaccines are kept and we found no error with the cold chain.”
Prof Arora said that most of these deaths were reported from GB Pant hospital.
“We discussed all these cases with GB Pant faculty, went through their records and conducted the field visits to assess the system and way immunisation is given, vaccines are stored and the cold chain. We also visited the households where children died and those who were administered the vaccine from same vile and on same day”, he said.
Dr Ajay Khera, Deputy Commissioner Child Health and National Programme Manager for Immunization said that 2.5 lakh doses of pentavalent vaccine were given in the State and over one crore were given across the country and there are no reports of AEFI from anywhere.
The other team members who visited Kashmir comprised Dr Ajay Khera, Deputy Commissioner Child Health and National Programme manager for Immunization; Dr Jagneet Singh, Assistant Director Immunization Centre for disease control; Dr Anija, HoD Department of Paediatric Lady Shriram hospital; Dr Surjeet Jain, IEFI spokesperson and member World Health Organization.
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