2 babies die, dozens sick from bad vaccines in Mexico

Mexico's public health system has suspended infant vaccines and mounted an investigation after two babies died and 29 were sickened in an impoverished community in southern Mexico.

Six of the 29 babies are in grave condition after receiving vaccinations for tuberculosis, rotavirus (one of the most common causes of diarrhea) and Hepatitis B, which are generally administered between birth and 6 months, according to a national schedule. The cause of the adverse reactions is not known, the Mexican Institute for Social Security said Sunday.

The institute said it stopped vaccines nationwide on Saturday as a precaution.

The Rev. Marcelo Perez, a Roman Catholic priest, said that families of the babies said they became sick within hours. The adverse reactions started Friday and the babies were being treated in a hospital in Simojovel, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, where 93 percent of the people live in poverty, 69 percent in extreme poverty, according to government statistics.

The hospital "doesn't have adequate personnel or equipment," Perez said. "The real problem is the terrible conditions we have ... so that when a baby comes in with convulsions, he leaves dead."

The parents of the two infants who died were so outraged at the government that they refused to let authorities perform autopsies, CNN reported, quoting its Mexican outlet.

The federal and state government, in a statement Sunday, promised the best medical care for the babies and to stay in contact with the parents to answer all their questions. Perez said he was helping the families collect all the information that could help officials discover the cause of the adverse reactions.

The Associated Press