COIMBATORE: A day after news of two infants dying hours after being inoculated emerged, highly placed sources in the Health Department said samples of the pentavalent vaccine would be sent to the Central Drugs Laboratory in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, for analysis.
The department is awaiting instructions on when to dispatch the samples, and the mode of transportation. “Meanwhile, the supply of two different vaccine batches have been temporarily stopped,” an official said. The Health Department also suspended the vaccination drive for 10 days at Masakalipalayam Anganwadi and Sowripalayam Urban Primary Health Centre, where the two infants were administered the vaccine on Wednesday.
Officials said one of the infants showed signs of pneumonia, while the cause of death of the other infant could not be ascertained as the parents did not agree to an autopsy. An inquiry committee, headed by Joint Director of Health Services P Krishna and Deputy Director of Health Services G Ramesh Kumar, met on Thursday to review the case.