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A doctor from the PMI of Charleville-Mézières in the Ardennes would have injected the infant with 1 ml of BCG vaccine instead of the recommended 0.05 ml.
It’s a medical error noted by the newspaper The union, and without serious consequences for the moment, which however receives a complaint from a couple of angry parents. On June 23, their baby would have been injected with 20 times the recommended dose of the vaccine against tuberculosis during a completely ordinary appointment with a PMI (maternal child protection).
No sequelae so far
By mistake, the doctor present would therefore have injected 1 ml of BCG vaccine instead of the recommended 0.05 ml, an astronomical quantity, before noticing immediately his misdeed. The health professional then advised the couple to closely monitor their child’s state of health for several weeks. And to regularly check whether or not an abscess has formed at the injection site.
As a precaution, the parents also went directly to the emergency room with an overdose certificate provided by the doctor, but the exact quantity injected could not be confirmed. In fact, no treatment could be prescribed. Despite the incident, the child would not bear any sequelae to date, but the parents still filed a complaint against the offending doctor.
A rare mistake
For pediatrician Andreas Werner, president of the Afpa (French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics), the error is possible but still extremely rare. Indeed, vaccination against tuberculosis is currently only carried out in vaccination centers and PMI, and the serum is no longer presented in single doses. In contrast, “it is strange that the doctor did not realize that he was injecting much more than the necessary microdose, we would have to know more” does he imply.
Regarding the consequences, the pediatrician wants to be rather reassuring: “There are no long term side effects on this vaccine. The danger is rather to present an abscess, with pus, something infected at the injection site. But if the injection took place on June 23, and the child has no sequelae, there is no longer any reason to worry, even if the error is serious.“he acknowledges.
BCG, a vaccine that is no longer mandatory
As a reminder, the Calmette and Guérin bile vaccine (or BCG vaccine) is a serum against tuberculosis which has not been part of the compulsory vaccines in France since 2007. However, it remains recommended for children living in Île-de-France, in Guyana and Mayotte, or those with a family history of tuberculosis. In this case, it can indeed be administered in a maternal and child protection center (PMI), without advance payment.