No one expects to hear stories of kids dying after being vaccinated. Fortunately, these types of tragedies are very, very rare.

Still, even one is too many when it might have been prevented. After all, that’s why we vaccinate our kids in the first place. To protect them from life-threatening vaccine preventable diseases.

A Toddler Has Died After Being Vaccinated in Cuba

The Ministry of Health in Cuba released a statement a few days after her death:

“Between October 7 and 8 of this year, three one-year-old children were diagnosed with an adverse event associated with vaccination with PRS, which protects against Mumps, Rubella and Measles, this is applied according to official scheme to children one and six years old.

All had been vaccinated on October 7 at the “Betancourt Neninger” Polyclinic in the municipality of Habana del Este, province of Havana, and immediately after symptoms appeared, they were admitted and received medical attention by professionals of high scientific level in the Pediatric Hospitals ” Borrás Marfán ”and Centro Habana.

Through the active research carried out on all children vaccinated in that Health Area, two more children were detected with symptoms, which motivated their admission.

Painfully on October 9 at night, the one-year-old girl Paloma Domínguez Caballero dies, admitted to the “Borrás Marfán” Hospital as a result of complications. The remaining four children remain admitted: one with intensive attention, which is stable and the others evolve favorably.

The system of active surveillance of the events associated with vaccination carried out in the country has not identified any other children with symptoms.

The PRS vaccine has been used for years in Cuba, imported from India, is endorsed by the World Health Organization and certified by the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (CECMED).

A Commission of the Ministry of Public Health investigates the causes that caused this unfortunate event.”

Official Note from the Ministry of Public Health on adverse event associated with vaccination with PRS (computer translation)

So what happened?

Tragically, either because of errors or contamination, vaccines can rarely cause people to get sick, either if:

• a reconstituted vaccine was used much after six hours – live vaccines can quickly become contaminated if they are kept and used for too long a time
• vaccine diluents were mixed up – some vaccines need to be mixed before use and vaccination tragedies can occur when a dangerous medication is used instead of a vaccine’s standard diluent
• vaccines were improperly handled – breaking the cold chain – or allowed to expire
• a vaccine is given to someone with a true medical contraindication

In Samoa, the recent tragedy in which two toddlers died, we know that the vaccine diluent was mixed up with a powerful anesthetic.

It doesn’t sound like a diluent mixup happened in Cuba though.

“The mother told the news portal CiberCuba that the daughter’s arm began to swell the same day she was vaccinated. Then the vomits arrived. Less than 24 hours later I was already in intensive care, from where I did not come out alive again.”

Vacuna en mal estado suministrada en Cuba podría haber dejado 25 niños en estado de gravedad

With reports that the vaccines were possibly expired and the child getting sick later in the day, with swelling in her arm, it is more likely that there was some contamination, maybe in a vaccine vial itself.

Which vaccine?

The report says that it was the PRS vaccine – Parotiditis, Rubéola, and Sarampion – or MMR, which is usually available in 5 or 10 multi-dose vials when one dose vials aren’t available.

It was imported from India, which makes many of the vaccines that are used throughout the world, but any contamination likely would have occurred well after it was manufactured and shipped to Cuba.

In all of these cases, there is typically nothing inherently wrong with the vaccine itself.

“Cuba, a relatively poor and small country (population 11.2 million), has managed to bring about remarkable achievements in health in the past 30 years despite difficult fiscal restraints and limited resources.”

MacDonald et al on Infectious Disease Management: Lessons from Cuba

Interestingly, Cuba actually makes most of their other immunizations.

So why would they be using expired vaccines?

Was it a mistake?

Did someone use a leftover vial that had become contaminated with bacteria? Were the vaccines not refrigerated properly? Is it an isolated issue or part of a bigger breakdown in their healthcare system?

With four other sick kids, the use of a contaminated leftover vial that was part of an original 10 dose vial becomes one possible scenario.

We might get some answers if the vaccine vials had not been thrown away after they were used, and are still available for testing.

In Chapias, Mexico, after two infants died in 2015 after getting multiple vaccines, a vial was found to be contaminated with the Staphylococcus hominis bacteria.

A few years later, in 2017, 15 children died in South Sudan when unrefrigerated vaccine was mixed with a syringe that was reused over and over for four days and given to kids by untrained workers.

Again, these are very rare and isolated cases. Remember that billions of doses of vaccines are given each year without problems, saving millions of lives.

Hopefully we will soon learn what really happened to these children in Cuba, especially as that will hopefully help to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Most importantly, don’t let these very rare tragedies scare you away from vaccinating and protecting your kids.

“The Cuban government has confirmed that five children suffered severe reactions and one of them — a 1-year-old girl — died after receiving a vaccine. The serum came from the same company in India that produced vaccines linked to the deaths of three other children following inoculations administered in Cuba in 2002.”

Child dies in Cuba after receiving vaccine made in India. It’s not the first time

We should remember what happened following the tragedy in Samoa. All vaccinations were unnecessarily suspended in the country for a time and MMR vaccinations were suspended for nine months!

What came next?

A measles epidemic that has already seen the death of one toddler!

The death of the girl in Cuba is a terrible tragedy, but folks shouldn’t make it any worse. There is almost certainly nothing wrong with the vaccines from India or any other vaccines in Cuba or anywhere else.

Vaccines are safe, with few risks.

Hopefully we can continue to work to eliminate even the rare risk of these kinds of awful tragedies too.

And no, this is not the MMR vaccine that is used in the United States in case anyone is wondering.

More on Vaccination Tragedies

• Did 79.4% of the Reported Child Deaths to VAERS Get a Vaccine on the Day They Died?
• Are Infants More Likely to Die from Vaccines Than the Natural Diseases They Prevent?
• How Many People Die in the USA Every Year from Being Vaccinated?
• Did the Measles Vaccine Have Only a Meager Effect on Deaths?
• More About Measles Deaths in the United States
• Nota Oficial del Ministerio de Salud Pública sobre evento adverso asociado a la vacunación con PRS
• Vacuna en mal estado suministrada en Cuba podría haber dejado 25 niños en estado de gravedad
• Muere una niña cubana por uso de vacuna vencida
• Cuba’s National Immunization Program
• Aids to Translating Foreign Immunization Records
• Infectious Disease Management: Lessons from Cuba
• What Cuba can teach Canada about vaccines
• Study – Vaccine-related adverse events in Cuban children, 1999-2008.
• Measles epidemic declared in Samoa
• Infant deaths in Samoa a tragic outcome from error preparing MMR vaccine