The baby started deteriorating within half an hour after he was given polio drops, claimed relatives
Days after two infants died and 32 were hospitalised in Hyderabad after vaccination, a 9-month-old died allegedly after he was given polio drops in Uttar Pradesh's Banda on Wednesday. The district authorities have set up a probe panel to find out the cause.
"It's unfortunate. This is the first time that such a thing has happened. I will constitute a committee to investigate the matter. Appropriate action will be taken against the guilty," H Lal, the district magistrate of Banda told news agency ANI.
Last September there was a scare in several states after contaminated polio drops were given to children during an immunisation drive. Poliovirus type 2 was found in some batches of oral polio vaccine manufactured by a Ghaziabad-based pharmaceutical company.
The health ministry had monitored the situation and asked the surveillance team in Uttar Pradesh to trace all children who were given the vaccine.
The poliovirus type 2 strain has been eradicated worldwide, including in India.
The head of the company, which was supplying polio vaccines for only government-run immunisation programmes, was arrested after the Central Drug Regulator filed an FIR (First Investigation Report) in the case.
Another case of a toddler dying only over an hour after he was given polio drops was reported in Ludhiana in September 2017. The polio drops were given as a part of the door-to-door immunisation drive by the Angandwadi workers.
Residents of Agra, parents of the baby, told news agencies that Anganwadi workers "woke up the sleeping baby and forcefully administered the polio drops". The baby's condition started deteriorating within half an hour and he was taken to a hospital but could not be saved.
(With inputs from ANI & PTI)