The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The sudden death of a baby shortly after vaccination has landed two medical workers from Daphine medical center, Kabalagala, Kampala in trouble.
They are Dr. Doreen Akuku and Joan Nabakooza, a nurse at the facility. The two are locked up at Kabalagala police station in connection to the death of nine-month-old Messiah on Friday evening, shortly after being vaccinated at their facility.
Police swung into action after Messiah’s mother, Geraldine Ainembabazi, filed a case at Kabalagala police station accusing them of causing the death of her child. According to information gathered by the police, shortly after noticing changes in the minor after vaccination, Dr. Akuku and Nabakooza attempted to save his life in vain.
According to Ainembabazi, after learning that the child had actually died, the health workers gave her a referral to Mukwaya General Hospital, which is opposite the American Embassy along Gaba road.
“When I reached Mukwaya hospital, the doctors there just looked at my baby and they told me I had taken there a dead body. They told me that the baby had long died and the referral I was given was just a waste of time,” Ainembabazi told the police.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga, says that police decided to arrest the two medics as part of their investigations to establish what exactly happened on the fateful day.
“We have taken a toxicological sample from the victims and we are now waiting for the results. But Dr. Akuku and nurse Nabakooza are being held at our Kabalagala police station to help us in the investigations,” Enanga said.
Ainembabazi who hails from Buziga parish in Makindye division, says that she took the baby to Daphine Medical center for vaccination but things changed swiftly as soon as the shot whose content she does know was administered to her baby boy.
A 2019 article in the Forensic Medicine and Pathology Medicine Journal indicates that sudden deaths in infants might be a result of adverse reactions to vaccination. But the article adds that is always difficult to separate vaccine reactions from coincidental occurrences.
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