‘Doubled deaths of kids soon after vaccination vis-à-vis DPT’

The Pentavalent vaccine (PV), introduced half-a-decade ago in India, doubled the deaths of children soon after vaccination compared to the DPT (Diphtheria-Pertussis-Tetanus) vaccine, says a new study by Jacob Puliyel, Head of Paediatrics, St Stephen’s Hospital; and V. Sreenivas, Professor of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

The study has been published in the peer-reviewed Wolters Kluwer Health’s journal, the medical journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil University.

‘Rigorous review’

The study now calls for “rigorous review of deaths following vaccination with PV”, and was undertaken to find out if these deaths were merely coincidental or vaccine induced.

“There have been sporadic reports of unexplained deaths following immunisation with PV, which is a matter of concern,” said Dr. Puliyel.

“PV — a combination of the DPT vaccine and two more vaccines against Haemophilus influenza type B [Hib] and hepatitis B — was introduced into India’s immunisation programme to replace DPT vaccine in a staged manner with a view to adding protection against Hib and Hepatitis B without increasing the number of injections given to infants,” explained Dr. Puliyel.

RTI data

Government records show that there have been 10,612 deaths following vaccination in the past 10 years. The Health Ministry had promised to study this in 2017.

The authors obtained data of all deaths reported from April 2012 to May 2016 under the Right to Information Act. Data on deaths within 72 hours of administration of DPT and PV from different States was used.

For their study, the authors assumed that all deaths within 72 hours of receiving DPT were natural deaths. Using this figure as the baseline, they presumed that any increase in the number of deaths above this baseline among children receiving PV must be caused by this vaccine.

Lethal diseases

The authors note that while the study looks at short term increase in deaths within three days of vaccination, it does not calculate potential benefits of PV on infant mortality, for example by protection against lethal diseases like Haemophilus influenza.

In spite of data presented in this paper from a large cohort, the authors point out that evidence is merely circumstantial and not conclusive.

“These findings of differential death rates between DPT and PV do call for further rigorous prospective population-based investigation,” the study concludes.