Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Mexican MOH: Bacterial Contamination Suspected Deaths & Illness in Chiapas

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# 10,044

 

A couple of days ago a report surfaced from Chiapas, Mexico where tragically a large number of infants fell seriously ill, and two died,  after receiving routine vaccinations.

 

Bad Vaccines Kill 2 Babies, Sicken 29 in Chiapas, Mexico

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's public health system has suspended infant vaccines after two babies died and 29 were sickened in an impoverished community.

Six of the 29 babies are in grave condition after receiving vaccinations for tuberculosis, rotovirus and Hepatitis B, which are generally administered between 0 and 6 months, according to a national schedule. The cause of the adverse reactions is not known, the Mexican Institute for Social Security said Sunday.

(Continue . . . )

 

Sadly, the `anti-vaccine brigade’ have quickly turned this tragedy into a cause célèbre, using it to `prove’ the that vaccines are unsafe, just as they attempted to do  last September when U.N.: At least 15 children die from bad measles vaccinations in northern Syria.

 

That tragedy turned out to be due to human error, not the vaccine, as we learned 10 days later from this statement by the World Health Organization.

 

Statement regarding interim findings of WHO assessment of deaths of children in Idleb Governorate, Syria

Statement
27 September 2014

A WHO assessment of the cause of the death of 15 children in rural Idleb, northern Syria has concluded that the most likely cause of the event was the incorrect use of a drug called Atracurium as a diluent for Measles/Rubella vaccine.

There is no evidence that the Measles/Rubella vaccine itself or its correct diluent were the cause of this tragic event.

(Continue . . . )

 

Regarding this latest incident, Mexico’s IMSS has released a preliminary report that seems to exonerate the vaccines and implicates bacterial contamination instead.

 

IMSS report, Ministry of Health and COFEPRIS progress on developments in Chiapas

No. 036 /2015

Following the developments relating to girls and boys who allegedly adverse reactions associated with the use of vaccines in Pepper, Simojovel municipality, Chiapas, IMSS, community and the Ministry of Health COFEPRIS unveiled at conference Press the progress of the case.

Due to its improvement, it is being discharged to 10 more hospitalized children in the "Dr. Gilberto Gómez Maza ". As the 5 that were discharged yesterday, will remain under medical observation in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez. Additionally, children of the 6 reported severe, 2 and are stable.

Of the 14 who remain hospitalized, 10 are stable and 4 are serious. The IMSS and the Ministry of Health of the state of Chiapas continue to work hard to keep giving them the best care.

Research on these unfortunate events continues. In order to keep the population informed promptly and provide certainty to all parents, is issued a partial conclusion: the targeted problem that occurred in the community Pepper, it was not due to a problem associated with the vaccine.

It was reported that the COFEPRIS analyzed batches of the vaccine and released in October last year, which was established that the vaccines were properly certified. Additionally, it was shown that of the 52 children who were given the vaccine in the Pepper, 21 community had no damages, in addition to the application of this vaccine in other parts of the country, which comes from the same batch, did not present negative reactions.

During the conference it was explained that one of the issues that led to the conclusion that vaccines were not chemically defective or wrong, is that culture results yielded local presence outside contamination, biological or outside the vaccine. This was reinforced by the fact that certain bacteria were found, which is consistent with the clinical pictures of children who have been hospitalized.

It announced that the investigation continues to determine the type of bacteria and the source of external contamination, so he entered a second stage of analysis.

The IMSS, the Ministry of Health, the COFEPRIS and the state government of Chiapas remain in close communication and collaboration in this case. As it has done, it will continue to report in a timely and appropriate manner.

 

 

There is obviously a lot we don’t know about this incident, including how this bacterial contamination occurred, and I obviously have no personal information on the matter.  We will hopefully learn more in the coming days. 

 

Reportedly this incident occurred in rural, low resource setting. The most likely scenario is that one or more of these vaccines required reconstitution, and that an expired or contaminated diluent was used (see PDF file Vaccines with Diluents: How to Use Them).

 

Unfortunately, no matter what the final verdict turns out to be, it will do little to `un-ring’  the anti-vaccine alarm bells that have been sounded across the internet over the the past few days.