‘Vaccine killing children instead of protecting them’

The Pentavalent vaccine (PV), which was introduced by India six years ago, doubled the deaths of children soon after vaccination, compared to the DPT (Diphtheria-Pertussis-Tetanus) vaccine, says a new study that calls for a “rigorous review of the deaths following vaccination with PV”.

The study was conducted by Professor V. Sreenivas, Professor of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Government of India data was used throughout the study. It was published in the peer-reviewed Wolters Kluwer Health’s journal, and the medical journal of Dr D.Y. Patel University.

Starting December 2011, two new vaccines against Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) and hepatitis B were added to the DPT vaccine, which was being used in the country. The combined vaccine was called the Pentavalent vaccine (PV). Even before it was introduced in India, there were reports of deaths allegedly because of the use of the PV vaccine in Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Nevertheless, PV was introduced into India’s immunisation programme to replace DPT vaccine. It was introduced in a staged manner, state by state, starting from Kerala. On the very first day itself, there was a death in Kerala.

The Sunday Guardian reported in November 2016 that a total of 273 deaths had taken place after the introduction of PV ( 237 deaths by Pentavalent vaccine and still counting, 13 November 2016).