DNA EXCLUSIVE: Govt washes hands of vaccine deaths

A string of deaths has put a question mark on the safety of India’s child vaccination programme. And the central government seems to be washing its hands of these post-vaccination casualties.

In December last year, 45-day-old baby girl Aarohi Bajgude died in Maharashtra’s Beed district, three hours after receiving the dose of Pentavalent vaccine. Her death has been classified as an “Adverse Effect Following Immunisation (AEFI)”, and is being investigated at district, state and national levels to know the cause. But most such deaths have been termed “unclassifiable” or “coincidental”.

As many as 132 vaccine-related reactions or AEFI were reported between 2012 and 2016 across India, after administration of vaccines such Oral Polio, Diphtheria, Hepatitis B, BCG, Measles, Pentavalent and Japanese Encephalitis.

Of 132 AEFI cases, only 78 babies survived and 54 died, a Union Health Ministry report says. Among those who survived, 37 or 47.4 per cent had vaccine-related reactions. But 52 (96 per cent) of those who died had reactions that were called “unclassifiable” or “coincidental”, blaming the deaths on factors other than vaccines, the report says.

Dr Jacob Puliyel, member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), said, “Not even one case of death was classified as a vaccine-product-related …read more