Experts on pentavalent vaccine on children have demanded exemplary action against the adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) experts for discrepancies in causality assessment reports on pentavalent immunisation submitted by them to the union health ministry.

In the causality assessment of 15/2/13, the AEFI committee had reported that 'the clinical manifestations, age group, season, and time of the death in eight infants were consistent with presumptive diagnosis of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Apparently the majority of the deaths happened around December and in the night, and these facts were assumed to be sufficient evidence to buttress the conclusion of SIDS.

But in the new causality report, which is now available with the health ministry, only one death is due to SIDS. There are three deaths with causal association with immunisation and seven reported as 'unclassifiable' including those previously reported as SIDS.

Lambasting the AEFI experts for their manifest lack of diligence in finding the real reasons for the deaths of children after the pentavalent immunisation in different parts of the country, Dr Amitav Banerjee, professor, Community Medicine, Clinical Epidemiologist, Dr D Y Patil Medical College, Pune urged the union health ministry to take exemplary action against the experts for their negligence.

In a letter to Keshav Desiraju, union health secretary, Dr Banerjee said, “Exemplary action needs to be taken against the AEFI experts, for the manifest lack of diligence in calling these deaths as 'SIDS deaths', when they were entrusted with responsibility of investigating these tragic occurrences”.

The introduction of five-in-one or pentavalent vaccine under the national immunisation programme was a controversial issue in the country till an expert panel, headed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Dr V M Katoch, recommended to the government early 2011 that the vaccine merits introduction in the country's immunisation programme in phases after studying the impact assessment in each phase.

The diseases covered by the five-in-one vaccine are diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae Type B (often known as Hib) which causes some severe forms of pneumonia and meningitis.

The union health ministry set up the expert committee under Dr Katoch after the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI)'s recommendation to introduce pentavalent vaccine under the government’s immunisation drive became controversial with the experts in the field airing doubts over the need for universal vaccination for some of the diseases covered by the vaccine.

There was widespread criticism in the country against the introduction of pentavalent vaccine under the government’s immunisation programme. The critics were of the opinion that the vaccines, which are of questionable utility, expensive and also carry possible side-effects, are sought to be introduced at the cost of public exchequer at the behest of WHO and vaccine manufacturers.