Three-year-old dies after MR vaccination

PALANPUR: A three-year-old girl from Danta taluka in

Banaskantha district

died on Thursday, about two days after she was administered a measles-rubella (MR) vaccine at an anganwadi. Her family members alleged she died because of a reaction to the vaccine, but Banaskantha district health officials denied this.

Aaha Shankar Devda was administered the vaccine along with 30 other children at an anganwadi in Danta on Tuesday. She soon got a fever and began vomiting, the complaint of her father, Shankar Devda, said.

On Thursday morning, Aaha was taken to the community health centre (CHC) where she was declared dead on arrival, said Dr L L Somani of Danta CHC.

Banaskantha chief district health officer, Arun Acharya, denied that the death was due to the MR vaccine, saying that the girl died of fever and vomiting. “The deceased was administered a vaccine along with her two brothers, both of whom are doing fine,” he said.

“However, we have referred the case for a forensic postmortem at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad,” Acharya added.

Shankar Devda is a farm labourer and a native of Oda village in Udaipur district of Rajasthan.

Earlier, four children died in various parts of the state a few days after being given MR vaccines. Sneha Rathod (14) in Sabarkantha district, Mukesh Gameti (7) in Aravalli district, Dimple Maheshwari (13) in Kutch district and Sunil Thakor (12) in

Ahmedabad district

all died within five days of being administered the MR vaccine.

A central government committee was been appointed to probe the deaths. It concluded that the deaths were not caused by the vaccine.

A four-member “adverse effect following immunisation (AEFI) committee”, headed by the deputy commissioner (immunisation) of the Union ministry of health and family welfare, is in the state to investigate the deaths.

The special drive, to vaccinate 1.6 crore children between the ages of nine months and 15 years in

Gujarat

, had begun on July 16.