Samoa’s Ministry of Health is currently investigating the death of a four month old baby on Saturday 29th April.
In a written statement the Ministry says it has a system in place to monitor, investigate, clarify and report an unfortunate event such as this is due to vaccination or not given that the baby was also vaccinated earlier during the day.
The baby received the vaccination due at 14 weeks old as per the immunisation schedule at Moto’otua site. Six hours later the baby was brought to the emergency department at the hospital in a critical condition. Despite efforts by the medical team, including resuscitation, the baby unfortunately passed away.
Other infants who were vaccinated from the same batch of vaccines including the deceased baby’s twin have not had any adverse reaction or been brought to the hospital for treatment or for any other medical concerns.
It has been confirmed that the nurses who administered the vaccines had followed all the standard procedures accordingly in the care, storage and administration of the vaccine.
The Ministry of Health continues to follow-up closely with those families out of an abundance of care and caution to provide needed support.
