Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli   

Death of baby sparks tension

TIRUNELVELI: The mysterious death of a nine-month-old girl sparked tension here for a while on Tuesday after her parents claimed that it was due to the Hepatitis B vaccine administered at a corporation hospital.

Ganesan and his wife Muthumari, of Kailaasapuram, said their daughter Muthu Naagu developed high temperature after the vaccine was administered in the corporation hospital at Meenakshipuram in the Tirunelveli Junction on Monday. When she was admitted to a private hospital at Tirunelveli Town, the doctors advised them to rush the baby to the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital. She died on the way.

“After the neighbours informed us that children were being given the Hepatitis B vaccine at the Meenakshipuram hospital, we went there on Monday. Immediately after the shot, the baby started suffering from high fever, and we took her to the private hospital, where some injections were administered to bring down the temperature. However, she died after severe seizures. We suspect that the death of my daughter is due to the contaminated Hepatitis B vaccine,” Mr. Ganesan said.

However, officials of the Department of Health Services came out with a different version of the episode.

“As per our records, the girl was administered the Hepatitis B vaccine (third dose) at the urban health post at Mela Veeraraghavapuram on April 9. If there was something wrong with the vaccine, the baby would have developed complications over the next few days. The death was due to febrile fits that is normally caused by high fever, for which the parents might not have given due importance during the early stage. Moreover, they have gone to three hospitals in the past few days. So it is clear that the death is not due to the vaccine administered at our health post,” said a senior official.

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