Two twin brothers who were one-and-half month-old died today after Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccination were administered to them at a village in Surendranagar district of Gujarat today, their parents alleged.
BCG vaccine is given to a new-born child to give him or her immunity from tuberculosis.
The district administration has initiated a probe into the death of the twins at Dhareil village.
"The one-and-half month old twins were given BCG vaccination yesterday on the occassion of 'Mamta Divas'. The kids died today after a day. We have ordered a probe which has been initiated by a team of our health officers," Surendranagar District Collector K B Bhatt told PTI.
The deceased were identified as Nitin and Nikul who are twins.
Father of the twins, Bhikhabhai Koli alleged here today that that his children died due to a reaction due to the vaccination.
"After vaccination yesterday, both the children had fever. They slept around 1 am. When we saw them at around 4 am, their mouths were open," Koli said.
Bodies of the children were sent to Rajkot Civil Hospital for postmortem.
Chotila Taluka Health Officer S K Upadhyaya denied deaths occured due to the vaccination.
"The kids did not die due to vaccination. There may be some other reasons. We are waiting for the postmortem report," Upadhyaya said.
However, Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil alleged that the Gujarat state administration's response was inadequate when the mother of the baby boys went to the camp complaining that both of them were crying and were had high temperature.
"If the administration had acted at that time, the lives of the two boys of a poor family could have been saved," Gohil said.
He demanded Gujarat government compensate their parents and initiate a probe to find out who was responsible for the incident.
