Agartala: Death of two minors after administering encephalitis vaccine in Tripura in past three days has sparked a controversy over negligence in imparting proper training to the health workers regarding precaution.
The victims were identified as Krittika Das (10) and Ariful Ishlam Maishan (12) of bordering village Srimantapur of Sonamura.
Another girl Shoheli Debbarma (9) of Mandai in eastern Agartala was referred to Kolkata yesterday while three others have been admitted in Agartala Govt Medical College.
Reportedly, all of them have developed complication after administering of the vaccine.
A victim family of Devipur under Kamalasagar police station area of Bishalgarh in West Tripura has lodged complaints against two health workers and two teachers of Devipur H S School who were engaged in administering the vaccine to the students. Allegedly, Krittika Das, a student of class IV was administered vaccine of Japanese encephalitis at her school Devipur HS as part of nationwide vaccination on May 25 last.
As per guideline the children should to get vaccine if they have any illness or symptoms along with other mandatory instructions. Krittika was suffering from fever on the day when she was given the vaccine in the school.
She informed the teachers about her illness but they still went ahead with it, victim’s father Ratan Das alleged.
In the FIR, Das alleged that after getting vaccine her problem became multiple including stomach upset and convulsion. She was shifted to local hospital and later referred to Tripura Medical College Hospital after two days.
But there also she did not respond to the treatment and was finally shifted to Agartala Govt Medical College on May 30.
She expired in the hospital on June 1, the family alleged. They accused two multipurpose health workers “ Promod Bhowmik and Purnima Pal and both the head teachers of morning shift and noon shift of the school Nirmal Ch Das and Lipika Chakraborty respectively. Police said they have started investigation but there is no arrest yet. However, Director (Preventive Medicine) Dr K L Bhowmik stated according to Microbiological investigation, death of Krittika was due to Missals encephalitis.
Clinically there is no report of vaccine’s reaction but the department has been investigating the cases seriously, he added.
Allegedly, health department did not trained up the health workers about properly about the protocol of administering sensitive encephalitis vaccine despite strict direction from the health ministry.
The Japanese encephalitis vaccination was launched two weeks ago in West Tripura, Sepahijala and Khowai districts of Tripura on nationwide pilot program targeting 1-15 years old children by the ministry of health. (UNI)
