Mexico’s public health system has suspended administrating vaccines across the country after two babies died and 29 others fell ill in southern Mexico.
The cause of the deaths and other adverse affects are unknown, but officials with the Mexican Institute for Social Security said they have launched an investigation.
At least six of the 29 babies that were sickened are seriously ill, after receiving vaccinations for tuberculosis, rotovirus, and Hepatitis B. Children usually receive these vaccines before they are six months old.
Mexican Institute for Social Security said on Saturday it had stopped giving vaccines nationwide as a precaution.
A Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Marcelo Perez, told the Associated Press that the babies fell ill within hours of receiving the vaccines.
The infants were treated at a hospital in Simojovel, Chiapas, where 93% of people live in poverty, according to government statistics.
The hospital “doesn’t have adequate personnel or equipment,” Perez said. “The real problem is the terrible conditions we have … so that when a baby comes in with convulsions, he leaves dead.”
Perez said he was helping government officials by collecting information from parents that might determine what caused the infants to fall ill.
