A team of delegates from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Geneva, and personnel of the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) will train health officers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to efficiently report cases of adverse effects after routine immunisations. Mumbai has been selected venue as it has been the best reporting site for the past few years.
The adverse effects include death, convulsion, abscess, mild fever and vomiting in children immunised for polio, diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT), measles, hepatitis, bacillus
calmette guerin (BCG), which prevents tuberculosis, etc.
The WHO-NRA joint team is scheduled to visit the city in first week of August. It will train three senior health officers from Mumbai and three from the rest of the state. Apart from improving reporting skills, the officials will also be trained in using Vigiflow, a web-based software which can feed data of adverse effects of drugs and vaccines.
“The city has been reporting the maximum number of cases because of follow-ups after routine immunisations,” Mangala Gomare, assistant health officer of the BMC, said. One of the three civic officials picked for training, Gomare said that the team of experts will be imparting training in Pune on August 2 and 3, and in Mumbai on August 4 and 5.
Experts say reporting of adverse effects after routine immunisations is negligible in other Indian states. In 2009, the city reported a total of 68 cases of adverse effects,including 5 deaths, 39 convulsions and the rest with symptoms like mild fever, swellings etc.
This year, till June, the city has traced 27 cases of adverse effects in children following immunisation. Of them, two have died — both having taken DPT and hepatitis immunisation. “The majority of deaths have been reported after DPT immunization,” a health department official said. “Of the five deaths reported in 2009, four occurred after DPT immunization, and a new-born baby died after BCG immunisation.
After the health workers report the cases, they are investigated by the civic standing committee comprising executive health officer Guirish Ambe and senior doctors from pediatric, preventive and social medicine, microbiology, pathology and forensic departments. In the event of a death, a first information report is submitted to the standing committee, which probes the case and comes up a report.
The team of foreign delegates will help in strengthening the reporting skills, which in turn will curb the adverse effects following immunisation.
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