AGARTALA: The Union ministry of health and family welfare has sent a four-member expert team to West Tripura to probe the death of three minors last week after they were allegedly administered Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccine.

According to the state health officials, the experts arrived here on Sunday. They met the family members of the two victims , Krittika Das (10) of Kenamia in the Kamalasagar area and Ariful Ishlam Maishan (12) of Srimantapur village in Sonamura, on Monday. Both of them had high fever after getting the shots in their respective schools as part of the nationwide pilot programme across the country. Maishan was given the vaccine on May 23 and he died owing to multi-organ dysfunction on May 29.

Krittika was administered the vaccine on May 25 and she died in Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC) from measles infection. Shoheli Debbarma (14) of Mandai died on May 31 at AMRI Hospital, Kolkata, after getting the shot on May 27.

Besides, 18 children were undergoing treatment at AGMC and two of them were stated to be critical, said director health service K L Bhowmik.

“The experts have arrived to investigate the allegations of death owing to JE vaccine reactions. They will interact with the health workers who had given the vaccine. The doctors, who have attended to the victims, will also be quizzed. The same vaccine was given to children across the country but except Tripura, there were no complaints from any other state,” Bhowmik said. The health department sources said the initial probe revealed that there were lapses in implementation of the vaccine programme on the part of the department.

Sources in the state health department said the initial investigation revealed that there were lapses in implementing the JE vaccine programme on the part of the department.

