Gandhinagar:

The central team investigating the alleged death of 4 children during the ongoing Measels-Rubella (MR) vaccination drive in Gujarat today said that in the course of initial investigation it has been found that the deaths were not related with the vaccine in any manner.

Addressing a press conference here the 4 member team led by Deputy Commissioner (Immunization), Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Pradip Haldar today said that the deaths of four children namely; Mukesh Gameti (7) from Arvalli district, Sneha Rathod (14) from Sabarkantha district, Dimple Maheshwari (13) from Kutch district and Sunil Thakor (12) from Ahmedabad who had died within five days of being administered the MR vaccine, were not in any manner caused by the vaccine.

Haldar said that after giving the vaccine all the children were kept under observation for some-time and those dead did not report any problem during that period. Also the other children vaccinated with them were all hale and hearty. He said that the adverse effect following immunization committee led by him has made detailed study of each of the four cases.

He said that the deceased children showed symptoms like acute stomach pain, gastritis, encephalitis and drug reactions etc which has no relation with the vaccine. ‘The post-mortem reports of two of the deceased were still awaited but in our primary report we have concluded that the deaths were not related to the vaccine,’ he added.

Notably, Minister of State for Health, Family Welfare and Medical Education Kishor Kanani had yesterday also termed the reports of deaths caused by MR vaccine as base-less. He had even alleged that opposition Congress was involved in rumour mongering about the completely safe vaccine.

So far over 61 lakh children of Gujarat aged between nine months to 15 years have been immunized under the MR vaccination drive started from July 16 and to continue for 5 weeks. Across the country over 9 crore such children have been immunized in this manner.

DeshGujarat