Day after 13 kids taken ill, WHO team visits Bathinda

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 8

Officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Union Health Ministry visited Bathinda in the aftermath of hospitalisation of 13 children on Monday, following their MR vaccination.

Dr GB Singh, Assistant Director, state Health Department, while addressing mediapersons, said they had sent samples of used/unused vaccines and syringes for laboratory test.

Significantly, the department did not carry out the vaccination drive in urban areas of Bathinda on Tuesday. Dr GB Singh said the drive had been halted as they wanted to collect water samples from urban areas in view of “diahorrea-like” symptoms among these children. He said the drive would resume on Wednesday.

Dr S Srinivasan, sub-regional team leader of WHO (Delhi) and Dr Gomti, a representative of the Union Health Ministry from New Delhi accompanied by GB Singh, who is also the nodal officer (state) of the MR campaign, reached the Civil Hospital in the morning and held prolonged deliberations with district programme officers associated with the MR campaign.

The WHO official and the Health Department officials also visited different schools to take stock of the vaccination campaign. Later, they interacted with the parents of children who were admitted at the government hospital.

The WHO official said they were investigating the matter. Later, addressing a press conference at the Civil Surgeon’s office, GB Singh termed the matter a routine visit, said, “Keeping in view the sudden rise in the number of children admitted at Bathinda post-MR vaccination, we have carried out inspections at different schools. We have sent samples of used/unused vaccines and syringes to the Central Research Institute (CRI) in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh. We can be sure of what happened only after we receive the report, which is expected to come within 15 days.”

Four suspected cases of measles

Bathinda: Four kids, who were administered the MR vaccine over the last one week, are suspected to have contracted measles. Their urine samples will be sent for testing on Wednesday. Dr Satish Jindal, paediatrician, Mother and Child Hospital, said, “The incubation period for vaccine-induced measles is one week whereas all these four cases have come up within three to six days.” Meanwhile, five more children with minor complications were admitted at the Mother and Child Hospital on Monday evening and Tuesday. In Muktsar, a Class X student of a private school at Bhalaiana village fell unconscious almost an hour after she was administered the vaccine. TNS

PSU to protest today

Chandigarh:The Punjab Student Union has given a call for a statewide protest on Wednesday against the ongoing vaccination campaign. In a press release, the state president of the union, Rajinder Singh, said instead of answering the questions raised by experts, the government is trying to suppress them with FIRs. He said the government should come out clean on the issue and should mark an inquiry in this “dirty deal between the vaccine company and the government”. Tns