An investigation into the incident wherein several pupils of the Lochaber Primary School in West Canje, Berbice, had to be rushed for medical attention after receiving vaccines at the school, has found both the head-teacher and the medical officer who administered the vaccines guilty of not adhering to procedures set out by both the Education and Health Ministries.
“It must be noted that the Headteacher for that particular institution breached the protocol in terms of parental consent to give the children the HPV vaccines… Also, the health worker too breached the protocol by not seeing the clinic cards and parental consent forms before giving the children the vaccines,” Zamal Hussain disclosed at the Region Six Regional Democratic Council (RDC) meeting on Thursday.
Hussain, who heads both the Education and Health Committees at the RDC, was at the time presenting the Regional Education Committee report to the RDC.
INEWS had reported last Saturday that the vaccines were administered the Tuesday before and by the next day, several pupils had to be rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital for treatment.
The parents of the affected children had complained to this newscast about the adverse effects the HPV vaccines had on their kids.
Director of the Regional Health Services, Jevaughn Stephens, had explained that in collaboration with the Education Ministry, all headteachers were invited to a meeting at the Berbice High School, where they were told about the vacancies and given consent forms to give to the parents.
But this was apparently not adhered to by the head of the Lochaber Primary.
As such, Hussain said that the region is looking at how they will treat the matter.
“We don’t know what [should] happen. But the REO (Regional Executive Officer) will look at that in terms of if we should discipline the teacher or just write her to ensure that this occurrence does not find its way again in the system,” he stated.
Meanwhile at Thursday’s RDC meeting, APNU Councillor Hasrat Hussain, who himself is an Education Officer, criticised the media for highlighting the issue, saying that they should have waited until the issue was investigated before reporting on it.
