TENKASI: Kin of a 1.5-year-old girl child, who died of fever at the Tenkasi government hospital, staged a protest on Saturday alleging that she died due to a vaccine administered a few days ago. However, a health department official said the child's death was not due to the vaccine.
Sources said Vikashini, the daughter of Vasanthakumar and Bharathi from Thuvarankulam in Patapathu village panchayat was administered vaccines at a Primary Health Center at Sundarapandiapuram, three days ago, and later she developed a fever. After taking the child to a private hospital on Friday, the child was referred to the government headquarters hospital at Tenkasi. However, the child died at the hospital.
The parents and relatives staged a protest at the hospital campus. The police held peace talks with them, after which they received the body and took it for the funeral.
A senior health department official told TNIE that the MR and DPT vaccines were administered to the child along with other children at the Primary Health Center at Sundarapandiapuram last Wednesday, but no other children were affected. Hence, the child did not die due to the vaccination, he added.
A senior doctor from Tenkasi headquarters government hospital said, "The child was taken to a private hospital at Melagaram in Tenkasi around 8 pm on Friday from where she was referred to the government headquarters hospital. The child was brought at 8.27 pm, fully dehydrated and in serious condition. Though doctors attempted to administer fluids, the child died at 8.55 pm."
Sources said a postmortem was not conducted.