Paris Peace Accords 23 Oct. 1991

Friday, December 19, 2014

Mass infection, mass hysteria, mass immunization - living in fear in the Kingdoom of Wonder

Seen and heard on Ms. Theary C. Seng's Facebook accounts: 
www.facebook.com/theary.c.seng

មណ្ឌល​សុខភាព រកា ៦២០


Theary C. Seng: I just had THE MOST DISTURBING conversation with 2 mothers here in Kep. They are worried sick, along with other parents, their disturbance triggered by this shocking, unusual nightmare that occurred in one Battambang village.

They told me that one strand of the lively and agitated conversation in the market this morning concerned the doctor, that he is a tool of politicians higher up and INTENTIONALLY used the infected needles to transmit the HIV. How could it not be intentional with 80 infections and the number rising?!

Is this possible, they asked me.

Without waiting for me to answer they both began to tell me of what happened here in Kep 6 or 7 months ago when their children were given shots in school (grades 1-6) without their prior knowledge, one of them were beaten by the teacher for refusing. They said when they found out a few days later they asked their employer if she has heard of other cases in Phnom Penh or other provinces.

I told them no teacher or authority can give their children shots without their prior knowledge and consent; they said there may have been a banner here or there telling of the shots to be administered.

I said it doesn't matter if no or few parents heard about it; the parents/guardians need to be given proper information and to give their consent.

They then told me an even more extraordinary thing: along with the "preventive shot", each student was forced to dip his/her finger in indelible ink, similar to the one administered during the elections. Incredulous, I asked them when this occurred recently, this year? Yes, around April this year. The talk among the people on social media a week later, they said, is that it is a plan to kill off the next generation of voters in order to make way for new people. Prior years, shots may have been administered but never accompanied with dipping the finger into indelible ink that lasted a couple of days.

They said this morning at the market the talk is that now 400 villagers are infected in Takeo. Have I heard? (I have not, even after a quick peruse of the news just now. Though the doctor was reported by this Post report to have fled to Takeo a week ago.)

Phnom Penh Post HIV nightmare in Battambang: More than 70 residents in Battambang’s Sangke district – including children as young as 3 – have tested positive for HIV after some of them received injections from an unlicensed doctor now on the run from authorities.]


Rasoka Thor: A story like in Battambang creates a lot of fears and confusion among the population. Your report about Kep may be a good example of this. While in Battambang it is a private practice of an unlicenced practitioner (and God knows, how problematic and dangerous are practices in the private sector in Cambodia), the shots given to school children was probably an immunization campaign against measles organized by the Ministry of Health with technical and financial support from international health partner such as WHO, UNICEF, USAID, JICA etc. All vaccines and injection material used during those official campaigns are sterile and the health staff have been trained. These vaccinations are very important to protect not only individuals but the whole community (to prevent or stop an outbreak than could kill or leave dozen of children with permanent disabilities). Therefore the public health services have the authority to immunize ALL children (except cases with medical counter indication). It is not up to the good willing of parents because the more children are not immunized the more the society is put in danger. It is a matter of civic duty! And we don't want Cambodia to become like Nigeria or Pakistan, where people refuse to vaccinate their children and undermine the whole global polio eradication effort, do we?

Theary C. Seng: Rasoka, first of all, I'm not going to disagree with a physician! Generally, I agree with you about the necessity of these shots, but the parents should know about the shots beforehand, and I believe INFORMED CONSENT of parents/guardians is still needed. But is so troubling besides the lack of adequate information to parents is the finger dipping... Do you know anything about this? It only occurred this year, not of shots in prior years.

Rasoka Thor: When there is a mass immunization campaign like for polio eradication or measles outbreak, vaccination teams have to vaccinate all children of a target age (for instance all children under five years) in a district in one day or two days. The best way not to miss children or not to vaccinate the same child twice is to dip finger in indelible ink (this method is used for mass immunization everywhere in the world). Regarding parents' consent, usually parents bring their children to the vaccination post or when the health staff go house to house the parents or child care givers are present, never a child is immunized without the agreement of the parents or care givers (it is all verbally, there is no written document because it would be too much work load that cannot be managed in a mass campaign. A team of 3-4 staff who have to give injection to several hundred children in one day, has just the time to put a cross on a tally sheet to keep record of number of children reached...). The case of school children in Kep is a bit different as children were at school when the vaccination took place, and the parents are not present. However the mothers said that there were banners for public information, some people paid attention to them, but the majority of people probably not... Because of the managerial constraints, it is not possible to send a letter to each family to sign. And as I said in my first message, because the public health interest is at stake, the vaccination campaign must be a bit coercive because the vaccination coverage has to be more than 90%, if less the whole campaign may not have the effect to stop the outbreak of measles or to eradicate the polio. All efforts and hundred of thousands dollars could have been wasted. And I forgot to say that the immunization campaigns always use disposable needles (usually provided by international assistance) which prevent chain contamination. It would be a pity that the misconduct of some individuals in their private practice (like the case in Battambang) makes the people fear and reject public health interventions. At the end of the day, it is still the children who suffer the consequences for not receiving adequate services.








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