Three Women In UP Given Anti-Rabies Vaccine Instead Of Covid Jabs, Probe Confirms

Three elderly women were allegedly administered anti-rabies injections instead of covid vaccine at a government hospital in the Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.

After the incident, local administration launched a probe, and acknowledged the blunder, NDTV reported. The District Magistrate of Shamli, Jasjit Kaur, said a probe had confirmed that the three women had gone to the Kandhla CHC where they were mistakenly given anti-rabies dose.

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The women, Saroj (70), Anarkali (72) and Satyavati (60), fell moderately ill after returning from the health centre.

Jasjit Kaur, DM, Shamli, in a video statement to reporters said, ¡°We received a detailed report and we found the three women had gone to the health centre to get the Covid vaccinations, but instead of going to the Covid vaccination centre on the first floor, they reached the general OPD. The pharmacist on duty had left for some essential work and had assigned his work of administering the anti-rabies vaccine to a private person, who is a pharmacist of the Jan Aushadhi Kendra. The person injected the three women with the anti-rabies vaccine without checking any papers.¡±

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It was reported that the man administered the shots without examining the vaccine.

Anarkali told reporters that after getting the jab, she showed her Aadhaar card to the person who gave her the injection. He allegedly said that it was not needed. When she confronted him, the health worker said that the Aadhaar card was not needed as he gave her injection against dog bite.

The enquiry, Kaur said, established that the pharmacist was at fault and hence he has been suspended. ¡°On Thursdays, the rabies vaccine is administered. Out of ignorance, the women stood in that line. The pharmacist should have been careful. He didn¡¯t follow the SOP.¡±

The instance of negligence comes at a time when UP, like many other states, is seeing an upswing in coronavirus cases.