A two-month-old girl died today at her residence in Jaitpur village of south-east Delhi with her parents alleging that the death was caused by a rotavirus vaccination which their daughter had received last month.
"The mother had breastfed her child at about 3 A.M. After which the girl went off to sleep. In the morning, after she did not wake up, the girl was taken to a hospital where she was declared dead," police said.
"According to the girl's family, she was given the vaccine on Nov. 28 but did not thereafter show any side-affects like fever, nausea, vomiting or abdominal pain," they added.
According to police, the parents of the girl have claimed that the child died after being administered the rotavirus vaccine.
The body has been taken away for a post-mortem at AIIMS with police saying they will "wait for the report before taking any action in the matter".
Police said that Iqra, the baby girl, was given the injection as a part of the phase-III trial of the vaccine by the Centre for Health Research and Development (CHRD) of the Society for Applied Sciences.
Dr DK Dewan, director of Delhi government's department of family welfare, said, "There was no recent state government- run programme for rotavirus injection. As far as this rotavirus vaccination case is concerned, we have sought a report from the department of biotechnology which is conducting a multi-centric study." The department is a part of CHRD.
The father of the girl is an auto-rickshaw driver while her mother works as a domestic help.
Rotavirus is any of a group of RNA viruses, some of which cause acute enteritis in humans. It is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children.
