Four-Month-Old Baby Dies after Quinvaxem Shot in Vietnam’s Ben Tre

A 4-month-old baby in the southern province of Ben Tre died last week, four days after getting a shot of the controversial 5-in-1 vaccine Quinvaxem, state media reported. The baby received the shot at a local medical center in Chau Thanh District’s Phu Tuc Commune on July 25 and started to have difficulty breathing the next morning. The parents brought the baby to Chau Thanh General Hospital and then Nguyen Dinh Chieu Hospital. The baby fell into a coma and was put on a ventilator, before being taken home after doctors had exhausted all options. The baby died a bit later. Authorities said they are investigating into the case. Quinvaxem is a WHO prequalified drug and has been distributed in Vietnam by Berna Biotech Korea Corp since 2010 under a national immunization program sponsored by the global vaccine alliance GAVI. It protects children from two months old against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenza type B. Vietnam provides around 5.5 million Quinvaxem shots every year and up to 200,000 of more expensive alternatives such as the French-made Pentaxim, which costs around $30 a shot. Quinvaxem uses whole-cell preparations in its whooping cough component while costly alternatives use purified antigens, which are considered safer, but their supply is limited. (tuoitre.vn July 30, vov.vn July 30)