Many Tamil Nadu districts facing acute shortage of DPT vaccines

COIMBATORE: Several districts in Tamil Nadu seem to be facing acute shortage of DPT (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) vaccine as Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in these districts have run out of stock of the vaccine that’s part of the immunisation schedule of children.

A senior health official in Coimbatore said, “We need 380 doses per week for Coimbatore district and we usually have a buffer stock for three months. But the situation now is at ‘just sufficient’ level and there is nil buffer stock in the district. The shortage is reflecting in the field, but the situation is being managed as children who suffer from cold would not be administered the vaccine until they recover. Since cold is common among children, we are able to manage the vaccine shortage. We have made a request to the state health department to give us enough vaccine doses to manage the demand.”

A doctor attached to the health department in Madurai said,” There is a large shortage of DPT vaccine in almost all PHCs in Madurai district. The second booster dose for children in the age group of 5-6 years is unavailable in every PHC in Madurai for the past one month. Officials have promised to send us vaccine stocks in the next few weeks,” he said.

Speaking to this daily, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that he would look into the issue and would ask the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine about the demand and availability of the vaccine. “We are procuring the vaccine from the central government,” the minister said.

Director of Public Health TS Selvavinayagam, however, said the state has sufficient vaccine stock.Recently a purported video recorded by a parent in Selvapuram area in Coimbatore city showed him arguing with a nurse at a PHC about lack of vaccines at the centre. Some of the health staff that TNIE spoke to also said that there was shortage of DPT vaccines in Chengalpattu and Tambaram too. “The shortage is there for the last two months,” a PHC staff said