Two children die after being given polio drops

[Guest guest]

The two key quotes from this piece – “'There was nothing wrong with the drops

but we will investigate the matter,' Munger civil surgeon

Bhola Prasad Singh said.” And “It was found that even children vaccinated

against polio were getting infected with the disease.

Health Minister Chandramohan Rai said”

Two children die after being given polio drops

http://www.indiaenews.com/health/20080108/90334.htm

Two children, including a two-day-old baby, died after being administered polio

vaccines in Bihar,

health officials said Tuesday.

A two-day-old girl died Monday in Munger town, about 150 km from the state

capital here, soon after

she was given polio drops.

'My daughter died within half an hour after she was given polio drops,' the

girl's father Yamuna

Mahto said.

Mahto said he and his wife took the newborn to a government hospital for BCG

vaccination but

officials forcibly administered polio drops that resulted in her death.

A three-year-old girl in the same town also died Monday after she was given

polio drops.

Her father Ramashish Singh said his daughter was administered polio drops by

hospital employees

although he told them she had been brought there for treatment of cough and

cold.

Parents of both children have demanded strong action against the hospital

officials.

Reports said several children have fallen ill in Gaya, Patna, Darbhanga and

Munger districts after

being administered polio drops.

'There was nothing wrong with the drops but we will investigate the matter,'

Munger civil surgeon

Bhola Prasad Singh said.

Last year, Bihar recorded 244 new polio cases, the highest since the polio

immunisation drive was

launched in the state nearly a decade ago.

Experts have blamed the rise in polio cases on devastating floods and the

failure of the polio

eradication campaign in reaching out to marginalized people in far-flung areas.

Bihar recorded 158 polio cases in 1998 when the polio immunisation drive

started, and

subsequently 123 in 1999, 49 in 2000, 22 in 2001, 121 in 2002, 18 in 2003, 39 in

2004, 30 in 2005

and 61 in 2006.

It was found that even children vaccinated against polio were getting infected

with the disease.

Health Minister Chandramohan Rai said: 'The rise in polio cases has posed a big

challenge for us.'

Most of the new cases were detected in Araria, Kishanganj and Purnea districts,

official sources

said.

According to official records, half a dozen rounds of immunisation drives as

well as special

immunisation rounds have been carried out over the past one year.

'Polio remains a big challenge not only for the state and the central

governments but also for the

World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef)

that have been

trying hard to stamp out the disease,' said a health department official.

The Unicef and the state health department have identified 28 blocks for an

intensified anti-polio

campaign aimed at eradicating the disease from Bihar by the end of 2008.

Worried about the rise in polio cases, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with

legislators and NGOs

took a pledge earlier this month to root out polio from Bihar.

India's annual budget for polio eradication is pegged at over Rs.10 billion but

the detection of new

cases in Bihar shows the country still has a long way to go before the disease

is wiped out

completely.

( © IANS / India eNews)

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