Ranchi: People residing in rural Jharkhand are shying away from vaccination programmes after the April 8 incident in Palamu where four children died within 24 hours after being vaccinated.On Thursday, villagers in Palamu district and other parts of the state kept away from a similar vaccination programme.Faced with an uphill task of winning back confidence of people, top officials of the state ministry of health, medical education department on Friday made an earnest appeal to the masses asking them to bring their children to health clinics and hospitals for vaccination of critical diseases such as polio , malaria, Japanese Encephalitis and measles.Routine immunisation drives are undertaken in Jharkhand twice a week. But on Thursday morning, primary and community health centers in Palamu wore a deserted look as many families stayed away from the programme.“The awareness among villagers about vaccines is very low. The incident in Loinga village has created more problems for us,” an officer in the state health directorate, who is following the investigations closely, said on the condition of anonymity.An officer in the Palamu district health services said, “Villagers usually tell us that their children die at an early age if the vaccines are not administered but now they are refusing to get their children immunised because they think that the vaccines will be the cause of death of their children.”The sudden crisis has led the health ministry to look for measure to regain confidence among villagers.Dr Sumant Mishra , the director-in-chief of state health services, on Friday appealed to all the people to have faith in the immunisation programs. “As many as 8.30 lakh children were administered the vaccines state-wide but no untoward incidents were reported anywhere except in Palamu. The vaccines are critical for the well-being of the children,” Mishra said in his appeal.The senior officer admitted that the numbers of children who were vaccinated on Thursday were less than normal average.As the department speculated on reasons behind the deaths, Mishra said health workers in all districts will be put through training on vaccination, handling of drugs and syringes and the cold chain management.Meanwhile, a senior officer from the Union ministry of health and family welfare visited Loinga village in Patan block to probe the deaths. Dr Dipak Polpakra, reached Loinga with a team of doctors from the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences ( Rims ). They spoke to the villages, family members of the deceased and the health workers who were part of the immunisation drive held on Saturday.

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