2 infants die days after vaccination
LAPU-LAPU CITY – Health authorities in Central Visayas will investigate the death of two infants in Barangay Pajac in this city, whose parents are claiming they died because of immunization shots.
“All the details in connection with this report will be included in the investigation, where DOH personnel will visit the areas… Our task is to give out immunizations through our health centers but because of the death of the children, we will conduct an investigation,” said Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Regional Director Dr. Sophia Mancao.
Last November 8, a midwife at the Pajac health center administered a pentavalent vaccine (PV) to three-monthold Ghirvaughn Mcreign Limpangog, and a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to four-month-old Ayesha Mae Suson, Both died three days later. Limpangog’s death certificate indicated the infant died of “status epilepticus,” with “meningitis” as the underlying cause. Suson’s certificate attributed death to “electrolyte imbalance secondary to acute gastroenteritis with severe dehydration.”
The investigation, which will be conducted by the DOH Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit, prompted the city health office Wednesday to order the barangay health center to temporarily stop giving vaccination shots.
The inquiry will include the parents, the health center, as well as the hospitals the babies were brought to.
Ariel Igoy, Limpangog’s grandfather, on Tuesday filed a complaint with the DOH regional office on behalf of his family and the Susons.
“We want DOH to probe what happened because we don’t want this incident to happen to other kids in the future. It has been very painful to us because the babies were really healthy before they were given vaccines. But they became weak after being given the vaccines” Igoy said in Cebuano.
He said the body of Limpangog must not be autopsied “because we pity him, especially because we, until now, cannot accept his passing.”
Lenlen, Suson’s mother, is willing to file a case against the people responsible for her daughter’s death, saying the baby was healthy before the immunization.
She said she suspected Ayesha Mae to have died from an “overdose” of the vaccine or because the vaccine may have been expired.
Igoy said his grandchild was given two doses of PV, which he believed might have been an overdose.
Sought for comment, Lapu-Lapu City Health Officer Dr. Rodolfo Berame said the vaccines could not have been the cause of the babies’ death.
“I feel that it is not vaccine-related. If we say the babies died because of the vaccines, then they could have passed away on the day they were given the shots,” Berame said.
He said that their vaccines’ expiry date is June 30, 2018.
Based on the barangay health center’s records, 97 children were immunized along with Limpangog and Suson on November 8.
The boy was supposed to have been baptized this Saturday and Suson in January. Instead Limpangog was laid to rest November 15 at the HumayHumay Public Cemetery here. Suson will be buried today. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, PV is a combination of five vaccines in one: Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type b (the bacteria that cause meningitis, pneumonia and otitis).