DILIP POUDEL
Republica Social Affairs
04/20/2010
A five-month old girl died on Tuesday morning 13 hours after being administered DPT vaccine. Sanjita GC, daughter of Jit Bahadur from Ramjadeurali-5, Parbat and posted at District Police Office, Baglung, had been given the vaccine at Baglung hospital on Monday afternoon.
“She was all right while being taken for vaccination. She started crying after being given the vaccine,” said Sanjita´s mother Sabitra.
“I thought she must have cried out of pain and put her to sleep by lactating her in the evening. She was dead when I woke up at around three in the morning,” she added.
The infant had also been given BCG vaccine previously and this was her third dose of DPT. The medicine and syringe for the vaccine is provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr Tarun Poudel at the Baglung Hospital claimed that the death was just a coincidence.
“If the death were due to the vaccine, the effects would have been visible immediately after administering it. Her death may be due to other infections as other children, who have been administered the same vaccine. have not been affected,” Dr Poudel argued.
The Department of Health Services (DoHS) had last month decided to suspend the use of DPT vaccines manufactured by Indian company Shantha Biotech following a recommendation of World Health Organization (WHO).
The vaccine was replaced by the ones manufactured by Crucell Berna, a global biopharmaceutical company based in the Netherlands, Korea and Sweden.
Baglung Hospital said the vaccines administered to the children were produced in Korea.