Rubella deaths.........

Probe ordered into Rubella vaccine deaths

by Dilanthi Jayamanne
Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva ordered the Investigations Unit of the Health Ministry to probe deeper into the deaths of two schoolgirls after they were administered the Rubella vaccine. A spokesman for the Health Ministry said yesterday that the Ministry had strong suspicions of medical negligence as in both instances the children could have been saved if they were administered the adrenaline injection which is usually included in the emergency medical tray.

Peshala Hansani’s death in March and Asanthi Wasana’s death in October have caused grave concern for the Health Ministry which had maintained right along that there was "nothing wrong" with the Rubella vaccine. "Both deaths could have been prevented if timely action had been taken by the medical teams concerned," he said.

The Assistant Medical Practitioner (AMP) who was responsible for giving the vaccines to the children at St. Thomas’ Girls School, Matara had his hands tied due to the unavailability of an emergency medical tray to provide medical assistance to the student concerned. After the Matara Rubella catastrophe the Health Ministry restructured its guidelines for the National Immunisation Programme, according to which Health officers visiting the school to administer the vaccines were instructed to refer students who complained of food allergies to the MOH office, he said. They were instructed against taking a chance by administering the vaccine to such students.

The spokesman said that Asanthi had developed an allergy on her way home and returned to the MOH office and had been given three drugs to soothe her reaction to the vaccine. She had then been admitted to the Wariyapola Hospital from where she had been transferred to the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital. None of the medical officers in charge had taken the step to administer adrenaline to stop the anaphylactic reaction which cost the 13-year-old her life

The child was administered the Rubella Vaccine on a Saturday and she survived for twenty four hours after she started showing signs of being allergic.

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has blamed the Ministry for providing substandard drugs and vaccines. A spokesman for the Association said the Medical Officer of Health had used his discretion in administering the vaccine. It was a technical decision which had to be taken by the doctor who administers the vaccine, he said.

The spokesman said it would be more appropriate to establish the quality and efficiency of the vaccine before re-embarking on giving students rubella again as this was not the first time that there had been negative reactions to it.

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It seems that the minister is once again trying to palm off his responsibility of providing quality drugs and is trying to find fault with the medical officers.He is trying to play the roll of a medical expert.
-Well wisher of the GMOA