(16-06-2007)

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01SOC160607

Hepatitis-B vaccine suspended nation-wide

Ha Noi — The Ministry of Health has given orders to ban further use of two batches of hepatitis-B vaccine nationwide as they wait for autopsy results on two children who died following vaccination. Deputy Health Minister Cao Minh Quang made the announcement yesterday to suspend the two batches of hepatitis-B vaccine produced locally by the Biological Product and Vaccine Company 1.

The two children were one-week-old Nguyen Ngoc Thao from Hoa Binh Province who died on June 4 after being injected with hepatitis-B and tuberculosis vaccines at the province’s Cham Mat health clinic. Some days earlier, on May 25, four-month-old Nguyen Ba Thanh from Ha Tay Province also died after receiving an injection of hepatitis-B vaccine and DPT vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus; and an oral polio vaccine.
 

http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/documents/media/MMR%20Vaccine%20Suspended%
20in%20Ho%20Chi%20Minh%20City,%20Thanh%20Niens%20News,%20Vietnam.doc
HCMC suspends US-made vaccine after worker’s death

Last Updated: Saturday, June 9, 2007 13:34:26 Vietnam (GMT+07)

The Ho Chi Minh City Health Department has ordered city hospitals and health centers to stop using a batch of US-made vaccines after a worker died and five others fell ill after getting vaccinated.

Six women workers from the Tango Candy Company were hospitalized Tuesday 30 minutes after getting a shot of MMR, a vaccine to protect people against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles).

One worker, Huynh Thi Kim Hoa, experienced breathing difficulties and a fall in heart rate, and she later fainted and slipped into a coma. Hoa was taken to Gia Dinh Hospital where doctors said she had suffered a brain hemorrhage.

The 20-year-old died Friday morning.

Hospital director Do Hoang Giao said Hoa's condition was not caused by the vaccination but was the result of defective blood vessels around her brain. The bleeding could have been triggered anytime.

The five others also suffered breathing difficulties and were also taken to the hospital. Doctors discharged them that evening.

The batch in question, H1666, was manufactured by American drug company Merck Sharp & Dohme Inc. on October 24, 2004, and expires in November this year.

The city Preventive Health Center said it imported 10,000 doses of the vaccine, more than 1,000 of which had already been used.

Source: Tuoi Tre, Lao Dong, VietNamNet – Translated by Thu Thuy

- ends -
 

Sam Daniel

www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080047740

Thursday, April 24, 2008 (Chennai)
The measles immunisation programme across Tamil Nadu has now been put on hold and two nurses have been suspended after four babies died soon after getting vaccinated for measles. The Union Health Ministry has rushed a two-member team of experts to the area. Samples of the vaccine have been sent for testing. There are also reports that the medical camps did not have any provisions for emergencies.

A mother, Arputhamaal, who was blessed with a girl baby twenty years after her marriage, lost her child to the killer vaccine. The ten-month-old died on Wednesday soon after she was administered measles vaccine, in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. Three other babies too lost their lives after vaccination at their neighbourhood government health centre. Arputhamaal was inconsolable and visibly shaken after she lost her child. ''I had not taken my daughter to the hospital even once after the birth. And the first time she was taken she died, said Arputhamaal, a mother.

Another mother recounts the horror she faced at the immunization center.

''She died at the centre itself soon after the vaccine. Froth started coming out of her nose instantly,'' said Suganthy. The state government has ordered a probe. According to the health officials, the vaccine was supplied by the Central government-owned Human Biological Institute in Hyderabad. There's a pal of gloom along with simmering tension in the area. While the government has announced a compensation of Rs three lakh to families, there is no consolation for those who have lost their innocent children. Ironically, Tamil Nadu is in the forefront of the vaccination movement in the country. The state has successfully eradicated polio and several other diseases.

In January 2008, Tamil Nadu became the first state chosen for implementing the Hepatitis-B vaccination programme.
 

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/03/14/flu_death/
 

 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2986733,prtpage-1.cms
Another baby dies, hepatitis shot blamed
27 Apr 2008, 0238 hrs IST,TNN

DINDIGUL: Tension gripped Dindigul after parents of an 11-month-old girl baby, Mariammal, blamed the hepatitis B vaccine for her death on Saturday. Mariammal was administered the vaccine two days ago at the Narasingapuram primary health centre in the district. She died on Saturday morning at the Dindigul Government Hospital.

Deputy Director of Health, Dr. K Jagadeesh Kumar, however, dismissed the claims of Murugesan and his wife Nagammal that their baby had died of the vaccine. "The preliminary report says the baby died of aspiration asphyxia. She was severely malnourished and terribly underweight when she was brought to the PHCs."

Mariammal’s parents complained that she developed high fever and when they took her to the Government Hospital there was no doctor to take care of her.

With four babies in Tiruvallur district dying after being administered the measles vaccine on Wednesday, a wave of panic has spread across the state, with at least two more districts, including Dharmapuri and now Dindigul, reporting deaths of babies due to vaccines.

Several cadres of the CPM and SFI staged a demonstration in front of the hospital, demanding action against the vaccine manufacturers.

On Thursday, a 3 month-old boy died in Dharmapuri district, 10 days after he was given triple antigen shots.

 

Human error or faulty measles vaccine? One Of These Reasons Killed Four Babies In Tamil Nadu, Finds The Initial Probe Kounteya Sinha

NewDelhi: 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 five member 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 thef reeze-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.
 
Ateam 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. Puttingto 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 nowsending a three-member team to HBI on Tuesday to check the PSU’s measles vaccine production unit.

“HBI is a pre-qualified WHOunit. However, we need to be sure that it is following goodmanufacturing standards set by WHO and the government of India. Theteam will inspect the vaccine production area, check raw materialsbeing used and inspect its quality control measures,” a health ministry official said.
He added, “This case is really intriguing. Asingle child can be sensitive to the vaccine and suffer from ananaphylactic shock. But how can it occur on three children, one afteranother, after being administered the vaccine from a single vial? On the other hand, records show that 230 doses of the same vaccine batchwere used in the same PHC that day but no other deaths were recorded.”

The team of experts has said that the public health centre’s cold chain was not to blame for her grief