Tegucigalpa, Honduras – From the Ministry of Health (Cesar) allegedly, measure corresponds to responsible leads to damage Exceed 140,000 vaccines In San Pedro Sula.
The Minister of Health stated, Jose Manuel Mathieuhe said two employees would be fired and other employees would be punished for serious misconduct.
“We will not hide anything. The administrative penalties the employees will face include suspension from work for eight days, and other penalties will be implemented later.” The doctor said.
For its part, the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Transparency and the Fight against Public Corruption (Fetccop) in the Public Ministry of Cortez continues to investigate a refrigeration system failure that resulted in the freezing of 140,189 doses of the national vaccination program.
So far, they report that they have identified three people suspected of sabotaging the vaccine, but inspections are continuing.
On September 20 this year, damage to this batch of vaccines came to light, resulting in the deaths of 8.7 million Lempiras.
However, since August 19, 2023, the alarm system that sends messages and emails to warehouse managers has warned of a refrigeration system failure at least four times.
The alert went out for several hours but was not immediately addressed or received any explanation from employees.
A Sesal investigation revealed that the temperature of the refrigerators storing the vaccines in the BioCortez warehouse was -20 degrees.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, vaccines should be stored within a range of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.
The damaged vaccines in this batch include: BCG (tuberculosis), DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus), DT (diphtheria and tetanus), yellow fever, adult hepatitis A, pediatric hepatitis A, adult hepatitis B, Pediatric hepatitis B, pneumococcus, pentavalent, etc.
So far, health authorities are responding to unforeseen circumstances with vaccines they have reserved for planned safety.
It is unclear when the corresponding investigation into the damage to the 140,000 vaccines will be completed.
Likewise, it’s unclear whether employees have been fired.
This article is signed anonymously to protect its author.