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Three elderly women mistakenly received anti-rabies shots instead of COVID-19 vaccines in Uttar Pradesh, India.
One of the three seniors was in critical condition after getting the said shot, an unnamed source claimed as per The New Indian Express yesterday, April 9.
The source said that the three – referred to only as Saroj, 70, Anarkali, 72, and Satyavati, 60 – last Thursday, April 8, went to a government community health center at Kandhla in the Shamli District to get COVID-19 vaccines.
The women recalled that when they arrived at the hospital, health workers at the health center first asked them to bring syringes from a nearby medical store, the report said.
After being given the shots, they were given slips and asked to go home. The women then began experiencing side effects, with Saroj, for one, feeling restless.
Saroj’s family took her to a private doctor, who found out that she had received an anti-rabies vaccine instead of an anti-COVID-19 shot, based on the slip given by the public health center.
The slips of the other two, Anarkali and Satyabati, were likewise checked and also turned out to be for anti-rabies.
The families of the seniors reported the incident to authorities, and District Magistrate Jasjeet Kaur has since ordered the matter to be investigated.
“Strictest action will be taken against those found guilty,” Kaur was quoted as saying.
The district magistrate later stated that the women stood in the wrong line instead of approaching the COVID-19 vaccine outpatient department, as per The Hindu also yesterday.
Kaur noted, however, that upon investigation, it turned out to be the on-duty officials’ fault for deciding to give anti-rabies vaccines to the three women.
“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,” Kaur was quoted as saying.
Despite the unnamed source’s claim that one of the women was in critical condition, Shamli’s chief medical officer, Sanjay Agarwal, assured that the rabies vaccines had no adverse effect on the women. Ian Biong /ra
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