Deadly vaccines to recur elsewhere unless holding perpetrators to account: official

Writing to Zaman English by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The supervisor of medical section in the National Coalition has blamed the General Body and held it the responsibility for the death of 15 children after measles vaccination.

In his official letter  to the opposition group, Dr. Jawad Abu Hatab, the Head of Syrian Health Authority responsible for the Medical and the Aid work inside and outside Syria and a member of the National Coalition, said that the General Body did not care about all E-mails and suggestions to train the medical staff. He mentioned that contracts were agreed with many training bodies in Turkey and Jordan, but they were not funded.

Abu Hatab considers vaccination a National Security issue, as vaccination’s teams can take samples from children which can determine the genetic map, like what happened to find out Osama bin Laden’s house via a blood sample taken from his children to identify their DNA, moreover, caution must be taken to medications enter Syria, as some can induce latent diseases.

Moreover, Abu Hatab repeated his demand to concentrate on the need to control drugs and vaccines entering Syria, besides treating patients and wounded, rehabilitating disabled, training medical staff in the liberated areas and supervising the training process and reconstructing hospitals.

Abu Hatab considered Vaccine’s crisis as the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it showed the cumulative mistakes and faults in medical services.

Abu Hatab explained reason for children’s deaths following measles vaccination relying on investigations’ outcomes, which was a muscle relaxant called “Atracurium”, was used to dilute vaccines instead of the accompanied diluents, which led to stopping breath and deaths, in children of low weight in particular.

In regard to the background for the vaccine’s crisis, Abo Hatab said that most staff worked on vaccination were activists, and not sufficiently trained to the required level by the Ministry of Health, beside the absence of the responsible for vaccination in Jerjanaz centre and his deputy in the incidence day.

Abu hatab confirmed that all medical staff, from top to bottom, were not assigned according to standard criteria.

In the end, Abu Hatab recommended to restrict vaccination programmes to one organization under Ministry of Health directions, and to allocate immediate budget to the Ministry of Health to be able to do its minimum duties. He recommended restricting the duty of the medical office in the Assistance Coordination Unit “ACU” to draw funds from different parties to support different medical projects, and to market these projects, and coordinate with Ministry of Health to implement them. He added that supervising the work of the Ministry of Health by the National Coalition via a specific committee would be beneficial. In regard to training, he recommended to found training institutes to teach medical staff in different areas and issue them official certificates and do not allow them to work without official certificates.

He recommended refurbishing hospitals and medical centers and equipping them with needed instruments. In the end he recommended to establish a higher medical council from the Coalition and the Ministry of Health and experienced people to establish a general plan to refresh the medical status in Syria and to retrain medical staff, refurbish hospitals, and supervising the national vaccination program and training.

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