The victims, some of them infants, apparently all died on Tuesday, mostly concentrated in the cities of Jarjanaz and Sinjar in Idlib province, an area controlled by forces opposed to President Bashar Assad. These opposition forces have sought to function as an interim government and provide basic health care services, including inoculations and vaccinations to children, given the collapse of Syria’s public health care system since the civil war began more than three years ago.

Spoiled or possibly sabotaged measles vaccine has killed up to 50 children in insurgent-held areas of northwestern Syria, forcing a suspension of a large-scale vaccination campaign intended to stop the spread of measles, mumps, rubella, and polio, volunteer medical organizations reported Wednesday.


Dozens of other children in Idlib were reported to have been sickened by the vaccine. Dr. Abdulla Ajaj, a physician who helped administer the vaccine, said the suspect batch of doses had been received three days before they were used. “This is the first time we have had such a problem,” he said in a Skype interview.

The provenance of the vaccine was not immediately clear, but Ajaj speculated the doses may have been stored at improperly high temperatures. “Most probably they were badly kept inside the fridges,” he said.

The Syrian American Medical Society, which organizes medical missions to Syria and runs a hospital in Idlib, said recipients of the bad vaccine began displaying symptoms within minutes, including shortness of breath, slowed heart rate, wheezing, and inflammation of the larynx. The group’s own facility saw at least 65 patients, it said in a statement, and 15 were dead on arrival, all under the age of 1.

The statement said the reason the medicines turned deadly were unclear, “though local staff speculate that the vaccinations may have been compromised by the storage location in Jarjanaz or potential tampering with the vaccinations.”


Physicians for Human Rights, a New York organization that has liaisons in rebel held areas of northwest Syria, distributed an internal e-mail saying that up to 50 children may have died from the vaccine, which appeared to have been either spoiled or outdated, and that samples had been sent to Turkey for analysis.