Following the application of an immunization campaign to 52 indigenous children from the Simojovel municipality, 29 of them had adverse reactions and had to be hospitalized. Two have died, and six others have been seriously injured. The perished neonates, Yadira (30 days of age) and Emmanuel Francisco (28 days), had not yet been officially registered.
The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) announced on 9 May that it would suspend only the application of Hepatitis B immunizations within the Simojovel municipality, thus overturning the previous order to suspend the BCG (tuberculosis), Hepatitis B, Rotavirus, and Quadrivalent immunizations at the national level, and to contain the Hepatitis B lots as the suspected cause of the adverse reactions.
The Chiapas state governor, Manuel Velasco, and the director general of the IMSS, José Antonio González Anaya, visited those affected and their relatives in the Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where they have been admitted.
Civil-society organizations have demanded that the State authorities investigate the incident in a profound and impartial way, and they called on the appropriate authorities to determine the chain of culpability among those responsible, as well as to provide the necessary support for families, in addition to access to justice. They expressed their “concern for the situation of newborns in the State, particularly those who subsist in conditions of extreme material poverty. Data from the National Council on the Evaluation of the Politics of Social Development (CONEVAL) indicate that, in 2012, 74.7% of the Chiapas population finds itself in extreme poverty, with 24.9% reporting lack of access to health services. It is notable that this outcome, which has to do with immunizations, takes place in one of the states with greatest material need in the country, where the percentage of unvaccinated children is 18%, and the mortality rate of infants is 13.5 deaths higher than the national average of 13.2 (2010), in accordance with the official data that are presented in the report Infancy Counts in Mexico.”
For more information (in Spanish):
El IMSS suspende la aplicación de vacunas de Hepatitis B en Simojovel (CNN México, 11 de mayo de 2015)
La muerte de los niños de Simojovel Chiapas, evidencia de la marginación(Chiapas Paralelo, 11 de mayo de 2015
Exigen OSC investigación profunda e imparcial frente a los casos de muerte infantil por vacunas en IMSS – Chiapas (Comunicado de OSC, 11 de mayo de 2015)
Se encuentran graves seis niños por vacunas en Chiapas: IMSS (Proceso, 10 de mayo de 2015)
Mueren dos niños por reacciones alérgicas a vacuna en Chiapas (La Jornada, 9 de mayo de 2015)
Investiga CNDH caso de vacuna a niños en Chiapas (El Universal, 10 de mayo de 2015)
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