Even as vaccination efforts against polio have been taken up on a war footing in Telangana, a case of possible adverse reaction to the injectable vaccine has occurred in Secunderabad.
On June 24, two-year-old Vilohith received the injectable polio vaccine at the Lalapet polio booth at Secunderabad.
Within 24 hours of receiving the injection, say Vilohith’s parents, he developed severe ulcers in the mouth, to the extent that he was unable to swallow any solid foods. The panicked parents then rushed him to the Gandhi Medical College and Hospital in Secunderabad for treatment.
According to Venkateswara Rao, Vilohith’s father, the consulting doctors at the hospital informed them that Vilohith’s ulcers were a reaction to the vaccine, and could be treated with medication. "The doctors prescribed some medicines, but my son couldn't eat anything all these days due to infection. The treatment is still going on, and my son has finally been able to eat food from the past two days,” Venkateswara told The News Minute, adding that his son is still on a liquid diet.
When contacted by TNM, Dr G Srinivasa Rao, Chief Programme Officer, National Health Mission, Telangana, said, “It is one of the safest vaccines. There will not be any contraindications or negative reactions.” He said that even milder reactions such as redness around the site of injection and mild pain would only be experienced in a very small number of cases, numbering just 15-20 among the total of 3,10,616 children being vaccinated.”
Stating that he could not comment on Vilohith’s case since he had not received information or details on it, he said, “We need to correlate and differentiate the diagnosis, whether it is a reaction to the vaccine or due to some other reason.”
At the time of writing this article, the Local Polio Officer was not available for comment on the case. The story will be updated when a response is received.