BENGALURU: A couple of days after the death of twin babies at the Primary Health Centre at Bapujinagar in Byatrayanpura due to alleged botched immunisation, Dr Sudarshan, Programme Officer for Immunisation, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) visited the hospital and sought a detailed report on the incident. He also has flashed message to all the 74 health centres in BBMP limits to ensure that the purpose of programme does not get affected and vial samples have been sent to Forensic Laboratory. Bhagyalakshmi, a nurse with over 20 years of experience in a BBMP hospital, who administered the vaccine from a vial of pentavalent said that there was a standard operating procedure and all nurses abide by it. “Each vial contains the vaccination doses for 10 babies. If something were wrong with the stock medicine, then other eight babies would have died too. Usually, any reaction to the dose can be expected within the first 30 minutes to three hours. In this case, the baby’s death was reported next day, so how can the health centre be held responsible?” she said.
The nurse said the twins were given immunisation at 1:15 am and they died the next day at 11:30 am.
Nurses In Trouble
Bhagyalakshmi talked about the pressure the centre undergoes on Thursday with over 30 immunisation cases and other cases too. The relatives of the babies had hurled abuse at the nurses. Nurse Rachamma and Radhika said they are now scared. “We were scared as two relatives came and shouted at us. For no mistake of ours, the staff have to give a report on the incident to Chief Health Officer, Medical Health Officer and Health Officer,” Rachamma said. The nurses and health workers of the area have also been given the task to trace the other parents, who had come for immunisation that day.
“In all 32 parents had come on that day and all the parents say nothing has happened to their babies. This has given us some relief,” she said. The nurses are trained to check for Vaccine Vial Monitor (V V M) and trash the ones that show any change in colour. Once a new vial is opened, it can be used for 28 days if it is stored in a fridge, a nurse from the health centre said. Mosin Taj, a resident of Bapujinagar, and the mother of a five-month-old, Arsal Ahmed was one among the mothers, who got her child immunised that day. “The child has fever, but this is routine for babies after immunisation,” she said.