Mild chaos prevailed at Ruia hospital in Tirupati on Thursday, after ten children who were administered antibiotic IV injections developed adverse reactions and had to be shifted to the ICU.
The children, developed nausea, fever and shivers, but were reported to be stable by the end of the day.
The Hindu reported that the children were injected with a dose of ‘ceftriaxone’, a common antibiotic.
“The antibiotic must have been administered to more than 200 in the group, but only 10 exhibited a reaction to the medicine. We have initiated measures to counter the reaction, and their condition is stable,” a senior hospital official told the newspaper.
Stating that the junior doctors in the hospital were on strike, the Deccan Chronicle quoted a doctor as saying, “The IV injection should be given very slowly. Sometimes it reacts, if it is given to a patient in pace. As the junior doctors are on strike, nurses must have given the injections to the children. It may be one of the few reasons for it. We have observed reaction in only 10 out 200 children, if it was a problem in the medicine, then there would definitely be more than that.”
The incident even reached the ears of Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas, who spoke with hospital superintendent Sidda Nayak and ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Last month, Andhra Pradesh's State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) issued notices to the Principal Secretary, medical and health, asking for a detailed report on the mysterious death of a 13-year-old girl.
K Chenchu Lakshmi, a resident of Yanadi Colony in Tadepalli, had died within a few hours of receiving a Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccine on August 17.
The MR-VAC vaccine, which prevents measles and rubella, is generally administered to children between the ages of nine months and 15 years.
Following this, NGO Balala Hakkula Sangham moved the SHRC accusing officials of medical negligence, and demanded action against them.