PESHAWAR, June 30: At least 500 people, many of them children, fell ill on Saturday after they were administered vaccines in a rain-affected neighbourhood of Peshawar. “The NWFP government has constituted a committee to probe the matter and suspended the ongoing anti-TB and cholera vaccination campaign in the flood-hit areas across the province,” said provincial Health Minister Inayatullah Khan at a press conference.

An emergency was declared at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), where most of the victims were admitted.

The minister said the committee, headed by paediatrician Dr Abdul Hameed, would submit its report by Sunday. It would fix the responsibility if the vaccines were found expired, cold chain was not maintained or there existed any contaminated matter. He said that according to the label on vaccine vials, it was to expire in 2008.

The vaccination drive would resume after the committee submitted its report, Mr Inayatullah said.

The health department suspended nine health workers involved in the vaccination campaign in the Regi area. Department’s workers and residents said that people fell unconscious after they had been administered TAB vaccines to save them from TB and cholera.

“Four of my children fell unconscious soon after the administration of vaccines,” said Mohammad Arshad, a resident of Regi.

Doctors at the KTH said that about 250 patients, including children, were rushed to the hospital with fever.