Exposure to contaminated water is a major cause of cholera. The file photo shows a school boy fetch stagnant water next to railway line at Kibera Slums where Cholera has been reported in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 22, 2015. (Xinhua/John Okoyo)
JUBA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's ministry of health said on Friday that 15 children have died and 32 others left with severe symptoms of fever, diarrhea and vomiting in southeast of the country after being administered contaminated measles vaccine.
The ministry said an investigation into the deaths of the children in remote Nackodopele village in the newly created Kapotea state revealed that it was caused by human error.
Health Minister Riek Gai Kok told journalists that evidence gathered from the ground show that the vaccines were poorly stored. A single reconstitution syringe was used for multiple times for the entire four days of the campaign and that the team which vaccinated the children were untrained.
Kok added that all of the children who died were under the age of 5. "We express our deep regret and sadness at the death of these children. The vaccine was meant to cure them but not to kill them," Kok said.
"The ministry of health has commissioned a multi- agency investigative committee to this report that has been presented and give appropriate recommendations to prevent this error in future," he added.
The UN World Health Organization and the UN children's agency UNICEF said in a joint statement that the children died of "severe sepsis/toxicity" from the contaminated vaccine, blaming the vaccination team for not adhering to WHO-approved immunization standards.
The agencies said 300 people were vaccinated against measles in the remote village.
Last month, the health ministry and partners launched an ambitious campaign to vaccinate over 2.3 million children against measles across war-torn South Sudan.
The ministry said measles outbreaks have been increasing in South Sudan for the past 10 years despite implementation of a follow up campaign in 2011 to 2013.
Official figures from the ministry revealed that as of December 2016, there were over 1,130 cases of suspected measles in the war-torn East African nation.
WHO said 74 people have died of the diseases in 2017. Complications of measles include diarrhea with risks of developing severe conditions such eye defects for children under five years.
