Tripura urges Health Ministry to inquire 3 minors death after JE vaccine

Agartala: The state government on Wednesday urged Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to send an expert team to investigate into the alleged death of three school children after administering Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccine in West Tripura.
Secretary Health M Nagaraju said the apparent cause of death of the minors is clinically claimed different but all of them have history of being administered JE vaccination and were admitted in the hospitals with almost similar kind of complains.
JE vaccine is generally considered safe like other vaccines and are used for universal immunization programme.
It was launched two weeks ago in West Tripura, Sepahijala and Khowai districts of Tripura based on the nationwide pilot programme targeting 1-15 years old children by the Ministry of Health.
As per clinical report, Krittika Das (10) of Kenamia under Kamalasagar area died of measles encephalitis which is not related to JE vaccine. Similarly, Ariful Ishlam Maishan (12) of bordering village Srimantapur in Sonamura died of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and Shoheli Debbarma (14) of Mandai died at AMRI hospital in Kolkata and the reason behind her death is not yet known,he said.
However, the departmental committee has been asked to submit an inquiry report within a week detailing on the vaccination programme in the respective areas.
It has also been asked to verify the claims of the complainants that the minors were administered vaccine even after reporting of their pre-existing syndromes.
He also stated that police has also started investigation into the criminal complaints lodged by Krittika’s father Ratan Das in Kamalasagar police station against two multipurpose health workers  Promod Bhowmik and Purnima Pal and both the head teachers of morning and noon of the school Nirmal Ch Das and Lipika Chakraborty respectively. (UNI)