Health Ministry gives Rubella vaccine a clean bill of health

The Health Ministry yesterday announced that their investigations had proven that the death of a school girl who died after being administered the Rubella vaccine was not due to contamination of the injection but rather due to complications developed as a result of an allergy.
Health Ministry Spokesman, W.M.D Wanninayake stated that several recommendations had been made by the group of doctors who had conducted the investigation and these would be taken into account in the future. The two considerations hinged upon the fact that an emergency tray was not available for first aid treatment of the student when the attack first occurred and negligence of the letter sent by the mother.
“It is routine for an emergency tray to be there at the point of administering the vaccine because that would have ensured the student would have received treatment on the spot, which might have saved her life. But that was not the case. Also authorities had failed to take proper account of the letter that was sent by the mother warning of the child’s allergies. Other than this the investigators found no evidence to support contamination of the vaccine or any other reason why the medicine should be blamed for this tragedy,” he said.
Wanninayake stressed that the immunisation programme of Sri Lanka had gotten many accolades in the past and that it was not fair to undermine all of that based simply on one mishap, as tragic as that may be. He insisted that once all three reports including the World Health Programme (WHO) report was handed over a final decision would be made on the responsible parties and that they would be punished according to the law of the land.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva urged parties not to politicise the matter for personal gain. Launching a vitriolic attack on the GMOA he stressed that the fingers of accusation pointed at him should be in truth directed against themselves, as proper procedures would be followed.