The tragic death of 12-year-old Peshala Hanshini caused by Rubella vaccination recently has triggered a war of words between doctors and the Health Ministry. They are, true to form, trading charges in a bid to absolve themselves of the responsibility for the accident and their blame game has obfuscated the main issue.

The Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) has promptly pinned the blame for Peshala's death and the hospitalisation of 26 other students of St. Thomas' Girls' School, Matara, on the Health Ministry and called for the resignation of Minister of Health Nimal Siripala de Silva, Health Secretary Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage and Director General of Health Services Dr. Ajith Mendis. The All Ceylon Government Medical Officers' Association (ACGMOA) aligned to the JVP has attributed the child's death to the 'inferior quality' of the Rubella vaccine which it says was close to the date of expiry.

The Health Ministry has laid the blame for the tragedy at the doorstep of the medical team that administered the vaccine to Peshala, whose mother had sent a letter to doctors that the child was prone to some allergies. The GMOA has, inter alia, faulted the health authorities for detailing a medical person who, it claims, was not capable of running a vaccination programme. This claim has been disputed by the Society of Registered and Assistant Medical Officers (SRAMO).

One is intrigued. If the Rubella vaccination is so serious as to require special precautionary measures and administration only by graduate doctors, why on earth was it that neither the doctors' unions on the warpath nor the Health Ministry cautioned the public, especially the parents of schoolgirls to be inoculated, against possible side effects and ensured that everything was in order before the commencement of the vaccination programme?

ACGMOA spokesman Dr. Geeshantha Dissanayake has pointed out that Peshala's death is not just a one-off. Yesterday, we quoted him as saying that 13 children had died in 2008 after receiving Pentavalent vaccine. What was wrong with that vaccination programme? Could the deaths of those hapless children also be blamed on the medical personnel who administered the vaccine? Or, was there something wrong with the vaccine?

JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Parliament last week that the Health Ministry had been in an inordinate hurry to dispose of the old stocks of Rubella vaccine close to the date of expiry for auditing purposes at the expense of schoolchildren. Is there any truth in this allegation which is very serious? This view has found resonance in the country, given the Health Ministry's notoriety for malpractice.

Doctors and politicians must stop playing politics with the issue, finding scapegoats and trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. Something has gone wrong somewhere and it is their duty to put their heads together and figure out what it is and how it has happened.

Sadly, the Rubella controversy has led to a huge loss of public confidence in the national immunisation programmes. The onus is on doctors and the Health Ministry to allay public concerns and fears about the safety of their precious children as regards inoculation, which, at this rate, might come to be feared more than the diseases they are aimed at warding off.

It is incumbent upon President Mahinda Rajapaksa to order a high-level independent probe, besides the WHO investigation now underway, into the Rubella disaster and get to the bottom of it. Anyone found to have been remiss in his or her duty must be severely dealt with.

The public must be reassured that there will be no repetition.