KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 ― The Health Ministry refuted today a news report claiming that a boy in Kedah could not longer move normally after receiving vaccination, saying this was not due to the immunisation shot but because the four-year-old was suffering from a brain condition.
The ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a statement today, said the boy suffers from severe “ventriculomegaly”, and that the condition was diagnosed when his mother was still pregnant 34 weeks with him.
The report in Sinar Harian with the title “Kami Takut Vaksin” (We fear vaccines) told the tale of 27-year-old mother Nor Wahida Abu Hassan, who said that her child has not moved normally since receiving a third dosage of vaccination when he was three months old.
“Severe ventriculomegaly is an abnormal condition that happens to the brain. It causes brain liquids to fill up most of the brain space, causing brain tissue to shrink. It then causes muscle, nerve and physical development to be affected ― causing cognitive weakness,” he said.
Noor Hisham said that vaccination has side effects such as fever and pain in the region where the vaccination is injected, but stressed that all these side effects are self healing.
“The public does not have to worry about letting their children be vaccinated,” he said.
He also urged the media to be more responsible in reporting the issue, and to be backed up by facts.
“The ministry regrets such inaccurate reports because it can cause a wrong impression among the public, causing them to reject vaccination,” he said.
The debate regarding vaccination in Malaysia was reignited recently following the death of two children in Malacca and Kedah due to diphtheria.
Both the children were not vaccinated. There is a growing movement for anti vaccinations in Malaysia, due to fear of vaccines containing pig DNA.
Imam Muda reality TV series participant Ammar Wan Harun had also mocked vaccinations following the deaths of the children due to diphtheria, and earned a rebuke from Noor Hisham himself.
