A
4-month-old baby in the southern province of Ben Tre died Friday, four days
after getting a shot of the controversial 5-in-1 vaccine Quinvaxem, local media
reported Saturday.
The baby
received the shot at a local medical center in Chau Thanh District’s Phu Tuc
Commune on Monday morning and started to have difficulty breathing the next
morning, Tuoi Tre newspaper said.
The parents
brought the baby to Chau Thanh General Hospital and then Nguyen Dinh Chieu
Hospital.
The baby
fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator on Wednesday, before being taken
home Friday noon after doctors had exhausted all options.
The baby
died on Friday afternoon.
Authorities
said they are investigating into the case.
Quinvaxem
is a WHO prequalified drug and has been distributed in Vietnam by Berna Biotech
Korea Corp since 2010 under a national immunization program sponsored by the
global vaccine alliance GAVI. It protects children from two months old against
diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenza
type B.
Babies
are given the vaccine for free, but it has lost much of the public trust
following at least 24 post-vaccination deaths since 2012. In all the cases, the
health authorities said there was no problem with the vaccine's quality and its
administration.
Vietnam
provides around 5.5 million Quinvaxem shots every year and up to 200,000 of
more expensive alternatives like the French-made Pentaxim, which costs around
US$30 a shot.
Quinvaxem
uses whole-cell preparations in its whooping cough component while costly
alternatives use purified antigens, which are considered safer, but their
supply is limited.
No comments:
Post a Comment