Dr. Ginige: Unproven claims could discourage vaccination of children

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Isolated incidents and sensational media reports have the potential to discourage the vaccination of children, Dr. Samitha Ginige, the Head of the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry says.

Dr. Ginige told The Island yesterday that a four-month-old infant had died, on Monday, at the Kuliyapitiya Teaching Hospital, following the administration of pentavalent vaccine at the Kuliyapitiya MOH office.

The Consultant Epidemiologist said: “We are looking into this. However, all vaccines given to our children are WHO approved. We have been using vaccines from the same producer for the past five years. There is hitherto no scientific data to show there is something wrong with the vaccine.

“Over 200,000 doses of the same vaccine have been administered to children across the country,” he said.

Pentavalent vaccine provides protection to a child from five life-threatening diseases, i.e., diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and hib.

Dr. Ginige said that if parents did not have their children vaccinated, some diseases that the country had not seen for generations would raise their heads again. Sri Lanka had one of the most successful immunisation programmes in the world, and that this is the reason why Sri Lanka has a high quality of living, Dr. Ginige said.