The two children were administered the vaccine nearly a month ago, after which their conditions became critical. PHOTO: ONLINE
Faizan and Sabeen, who were both four years old, were injected with the measles vaccine on May 3 after which their condition became critical and they had been taken to the district hospital in Charsadda.
The two children died today.
An investigation committee has been formed to look into the matter.
Who's at fault?
The government launched a 12-day measles campaign on May 19 and since then several cases of negative reactions to the vaccine are surfacing. Around 110 adverse reactions have been recorded by the health department so far.
According to investigations, 40% of the anti-measles vaccine staff is untrained and lack sufficient knowledge about the technicalities of administering measles vaccine.
But a medical specialist in Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Shabqadar earlier told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that the deaths were caused by the vaccine and not due to untrained staff.
He claimed the medicine lost its efficacy due to prolonged outages in the hospitals.
According to the specialist, the hospitals where the vaccines are being stored face almost 20 hours of outages. “The cold chain for all vaccines needs to be maintained; since the hospitals face outages the quality of medicine is affected,” he added.
COMMENTS (13)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1734587529-0/Express-Tribune-(1)1734587529-0-270x192.webp "pakistan to host another icc event")
@Specialist who claimed “The cold chain for all vaccines needs to be maintained; since the hospitals face outages the quality of medicine is affected" True, but in that case the vaccine may only lose its efficacy, not necessarily become a threat or something very dangerous to the recipients. I think we need a proper investigation here to establish a "cause and effect" relation and punish the ones who are guilty. The children who died were nice, innocent, and wonderful HUMAN BEINGS--- not guinea pigs, for God's sake. @Naveed: "4 kids died due to Measles vaccine which is 0.00005 percent of kids who obtained vaccine" Statistics is nice, but what if one of your kid were among theses 0.00005 per cent?
vaccine administered on May 03 and children die after a month? Is there something here im missing?
Doesn't everyone know these are Indian vaccinations which have been wreaking havoc in KPK. These have been procured by the Federal Government to favor the Indian businessmen. Shame on them.
PTI sahet ka insaaf?? If only you could spend more on basics than staging useless dharnas!!
I do not want to see PTI kids boasting of PTI's achievements ever again on these forums!
110 kids affected!
For PTI supporters
"sharam tum ko magar nai ati"
PTI has announced a dharna against PTI itself on mishandling of "sahet ka insaaf"!
PTI supporters are overjoyed with the news. IK is the only hope! Welcome to naya Pakistan.
I think Media needs to be rational about this issue and try not to sensationalize this whole issues for purpose of breaking news. About 8 million kids were immunized against Measles. Out of 8 Million, 110 had unwanted side effects which is 0.001 percent. 4 kids died due to Measles vaccine which is 0.00005 percent of kids who obtained vaccine. Now if you look at statistics from side effects of vaccine, these can be regarded as normal side effects which can be expected. Obviously, there should be more investigation and such unwanted events needs to be minimized.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/mmr-side-effects.aspx
@Chachoo: Hospitals electricity must not suffer outages, this is unacceptable, whatever happens to PM, CM, GHQ and VIPs comfort, childrens vaccines take priority to Ministers and generals comfort.
If only the money spent on dharnas were diverted towards providing fuel to generators to atleast keep the vials in good condition, lives couldve been saved. And, is it now an appropriate time to call IK as Measle Khan? Like Dengue brothers?
Well to all blindfolded PTI Jialas...
New Pakistan, isn't it??
I am afraid Imran will blame Shahbaz Sharif and Dhaandli for this mismanagement as well.
According to investigations, 40% of the anti-measles vaccine staff is untrained and lack sufficient knowledge about the technicalities of administering measles vaccine. . The list of vaccines normally given to children is pretty limited but the demand is sufficient to warrant a large fully trained staff. Providing vaccinations is an honorable full time job in the rest of the World - the administrators are certified and competent. Ain't rocket science and you don't have to re-invent the wheel - just copy what others have done successfully for decades. Maybe spend less money on nukes and cruise missiles and more on basics?
I am a die hard supporter of PTI and this is really very disturbing and worrying for me that why this vaccine is that much dangerous for the kids, is it the vaccine which is having issues or the staff who give these vaccines are neglecting best practices, first of all the health minister should take responsibility and should resign immediately, we have to show that we are different then others, no matter what Health Mister should take moral responsibility and should resign..