Hyderabad: A two-month-old baby died early on Thursday after she fell sick after being administered a pentavelant vaccine at a government primary health centre in Medchal.
Parents of the baby girl P. Hemapriya alleged that she fell sick after being given the vaccine on Wednesday. She started bleeding from her nose early in the morning and soon died. Hemapriya was the only daughter of P. Konda Reddy and P. Harshitha from Mahbubnagar. Ms Harshitha had gone to her parents’ village, Sathupally under the Medchal Police station limits, for delivery.
36 kids were given vaccine
On Wednesday, Ms Harshitha brought the child to the Health Sub Centre II near the MRO Office in Medchal where the nurse administered Oral Polio Vaccine I, Penta I and IPC I vaccines. After returning home, Hemapriya started crying bitterly. She slept after her mother fed her milk.
“I thought she was having some uneasiness due to the vaccine like most babies and felt relieved when she slept after I fed her. When she did not wake up again, I thought she was in deep sleep due to the effect of the vaccine,” Ms Harshitha said.
Around 3.30 am, when Harshitha woke up and checked on Hemapriya, she found her bleeding from the nose. As she and her mother tried to clean the child, they realised that she was dead.
Ms Harshitha lodged a complaint with the Medchal police and a case for causing death due to negligence was registered against the nurse. On inquiry, police found that as per the official records of the health center, Ms Rajitha, a resident of Balaji Nagar in Medchal, was on duty on Wednesday. However, when cops visited her home, it was locked.
“We are awaiting the autopsy report to know the exact cause of death. Based on that, we will proceed,” said Medchal SI K. Ganesh.
District medical and health officer of Medchal Dr Bhanu Prakash said that there were 36 children who had been given the same vaccine on that day and only this child had been affected. According to sources in the Health department: “The initial inquiry conducted stated that the mother fed the baby and slept. There were toys kept around the sleeping area and we are checking what led to the bleeding.”
Dr Altaf Naseem, senior paediatrician, said, “One in one lakh children reports an untoward event and it could be because the child had an underlying disorder which was not diagnosed. Often in these cases there is shock, lowering of blood pressure and seizure. Bleeding of the nose could be due to an object kept close to the child which led to the incident.”
