A doctor attends to a patient at the Khatun primary school in Goghat where a pulse polio programme was being held
Sixty-seven children, all under five years of age, were rushed to hospital after it was discovered that they had been given the hepatitis B vaccine orally instead of anti-polio drops under the Pulse Polio programme in West Bengal yesterday.
The alert father of a 14-month-old boy spotted the ghastly error.
Ganga Ruidas had taken his toddler to the Khatun primary school in Goghat in Arambagh, about 80 km from state capital Kolkata, where the once-a-month programme for under-fives was being held. He noticed that the health workers were taking out medicine from vials marked Hepatitis B vaccine.
When Mr Ruidas pointed this out, the workers realised that they had given about 114 children the wrong medicine orally.
Doctors at the government-run Arambagh Sub-Divisional Hospital said the Hepatitis B vaccine, which is an injectible, has no effect when administered orally. But how big a tragedy the negligence could have resulted in was lost on none.
Angry parents locked up district health officials in the school premises till the police reached.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered an inquiry and suspended four health workers.
The pulse polio programme is conducted on some Sundays all over the country by the government, to ensure every child is covered. India has been polio-free since January 2011.