[vinnomot] Human error or faulty measles vaccine?

Monday, April 28, 2008

[vinnomot] Human error or faulty measles vaccine?

This news must be viewed in the backdrop of the Government of India's decision to close
down all indigenous vaccine manufacturing units and allow the vaccine MNCs a free run in our country. This incident will certainly be viewed as a God sent opportunity by the health policy makers despite the tragic nature of the incident. Human life was never so cheap. Vaccines are however more dirty than the vaccine politics. Now that facts are coming out into the open we hope the public will learn a few lessons.

The only way to protect yourself is TO AVOID ALL VACCINES. Be natural, be safe. PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN FROM HARM.. DO NOT VACCINATE.DO NOT BELIEVE THE VACCINE MNCs.TODAY THE SENIORMOST DOCTORS OF OUR COUNTRY ARE OPENLY SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE WHO & THE UNICEF.WHAT THEY ARE SAYING TODAY WE HAVE BEEN SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS SINCE A LONG TIME.

THERE IS STILL TIME. DEMAND THAT VACCINES BE BANNED.GIVE THE CHILDREN A CHANCE TO LIVE.

Jagannath.
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Human error or faulty measles vaccine?

One Of These Reasons Killed Four Babies In Tamil Nadu, Finds The Initial Probe

Kounteya Sinha | TNN

New Delhi: All four children who died after being administered the measles vaccine in Tamil Nadu on April 23 suffered severe brain haemorrhage resulting from an anaphylactic shock, an inquiry has found.
    This will be pointed out by the fivemember expert team sent by the health ministry to investigate the deaths, when they submit their initial report to health minister A Ramadoss on Monday.
    Experts in the team said an anaphylactic shock—a severe, potentially lethal systemic allergic reaction—following a measles vaccination is highly rare and occurs in one out of every 10 lakh cases.
    They said the anaphylactic shock killing all four—within half-an-hour of the vaccine being administered around the same area—pointed to two likely reasons for why the deaths occurred—a human error resulting in mixing the freeze-dried vaccine with a different chemical in place of saline water or a contaminated vaccine containing a foreign protein, like bacteria, from being kept in the open for more than three hours after being reconstituted.
    A team member who returned from Chennai on Friday after investigations, however, confirmed that the public health centre's cold chain system, which was used to store the vaccines, was not at fault.
    Putting to rest allegations that the nurses may have used the same syringe to vaccinate the three children after dipping it in chemicals like adrenaline or muscle relaxants, the team said individual syringes were used.
    One of the experts said, "There was no conflict between what the nurses, angadwadi workers and family members of children who died said. The cold chain system was fine. Police reports also showed that individual syringes were used. But the government hospital which carried out the postmortem found that all of them died of haemorrhage, which is strange."
    The Central Drug Laboratory has started testing 20 samples of the vaccine from the same batch that killed the children—10 each collected from the fatal site in Tiruvallur and those lying with the Human Biologicals Institute in Hyderabad.
    Worried about its good manufacturing standards, the health ministry is now sending a three-member team to HBI on Tuesday to check the PSU's measles vaccine production unit.
    "HBI is a pre-qualified WHO unit. However, we need to be sure that it is following good manufacturing standards set by WHO and the government of India. The team will inspect the vaccine production area, check raw materials being used and inspect its quality control measures," a health ministry official said.
    He added, "This case is really intriguing. A single child can be sensitive to the vaccine and suffer from an anaphylactic shock. But how can it occur on three children, one after another, after being administered the vaccine from a single vial? On the other hand, records show that 230 doses of the same vaccine batch were used in the same PHC that day but no other deaths were recorded."