Can vaccines be linked to seizures?

Families of two children from Pennalurpet near Poondi who died after being given measles vaccine shots on Wednesday told the central team, deputed by the Union Health Ministry, that their children had seizures soon after they were given the shots.

The committee, headed by Shiv Lal, National Institute of Communicable Diseases, visited the families of Puja and Nandhini at Pennalurpet in Poondi Panchayat Union on Friday morning. Puja’s father Allimuthu said his daughter was normal prior to administration of the vaccine. After a few minutes, she developed some problems and was rushed to the Primary Health Centre at Katchur.
“From there, we took our child to Tiruvallur Government Hospital. En route, blood began oozing from her hand. We came to know only at around 1 p.m., when the hospital staff moved her body to the mortuary, that our child had died”, they said.

After making enquiries with the affected families in Pennalurpet and nearby Plazpalayam, the team reached the Katchur PHC at around noon.

The team was informed that oral polio vaccine was also administered to these children prior to the measles shot.

The PHC staff informed the Central team that they had received 40 vials and 40 dilutors from the Deputy Director (Health) office at Tiruvallur.

While 39 diluents carried the name of one company, the other bore the name of a different company, manufactured in February 2006 and due for expiry in January 2011.

The team collected details with regard to the number of measles shots and other vaccines given to children on that day at Katchur, number of vials sent for chemical analysis, status of cold chain and the manner in which the vaccines were usually distributed and administered to children.

Later, they went to Government Hospital, Tiruvallur, and made enquiries with the DD (Health) and other District-level senior officials of the Health Department.