Parents allege; docs say vaccine not the cause of death
A three-year-old boy yesterday died allegedly after taking polio vaccine at Toilokup village under Kaliganj upazila in the district.
Deceased Sami Hossain, son of Shawkat Ali of the village, was in sound health before taking the vaccine, claimed the parents.
Abu Fatta, senior consultant (medicine) of Jhenidah Sadar hospital, said Sami might have died of other disease as the vaccine takes some time to take effect. Reportedly, the child had died within 10 minutes after the vaccine was administered, he added.
Volunteer Milon Hossain under the supervision of Forkan Ali, health assistant of Kaliganj health complex, gave Sami the vaccine around 1:30pm.
Nurunnahar, Sami’s aunt, told The Daily Star that the child was playing in the yard right before he was given the vaccine.
The father of the victim echoed the same claim that his son was not suffering from illness of any sort while the news of Sami’s death shocked him to the very core.
Jhenidah Civil surgeon Keramat Ali, on duty doctor of World Health Organisation Pankaj, Deputy director of primary day-care Rajendra Meheta, district health official Abdus Sattar and Kaliganj upazila health officer Arun Kumar visited the victim’s house around 2:30 pm.
