Hyderabad: Two more infants were admitted at Niloufer hospital as a result of administering of the wrong drug, taking the number of affected infants to 34. The condition of all the babies is stable.
The babies had been administered a pentavalent vaccine to protect against five diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and hepatitis B. To manage fever that sometimes follows the vaccine, the babies were wrongly given Tramadol, an opioid painkiller meant for elderly kidney patients, instead of paracetamol to control their fever.
Dr Ravi Kumar, pediatrician from Niloufer Hospital, said the effect of Tramadol lasts for 48 hours. “We will start discharging them from Saturday after a check-up.”
The Habeebnagar police booked the duty doctor and staff who administered Tramadol to the infants. The complaint was lodged by the father of one of the victims, Md Asif, a daily wage labourer, whose two-month-old son Md Omer died after being given Tramadol.
Habeebnagar station house officer T. Amrutha Reddy said a case was booked under IPC Section 304(a) (causing death by negligence).
Later, the government terminated the services of the Nampally urban primary health staff medical officer, auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) and pharmacist and ordered disciplinary action against the regular staff.
The state ordered withdrawal of Tramadol tablets and injections from primary health centres and basti dawakhanas. It ordered a change in the size of Tramadol tablets, packaging and colour.
It also formed an panel to review the vaccine administration system including maintenance of records, positioning of drugs in PHCs and sub-centres and developing internal controls.
