Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy said yesterday that one individual, who has been disciplined, was responsible for the lapse in procedure which resulted in a batch of H1N1 vaccines that was shipped here being replaced.

Ramsammy’s comments followed recent public statements by President Bharrat Jagedo last week that one person was responsible for what happened with the vaccines. The minister said the individual was expected to receive the vaccine shipment, but instead left early that day and junior employees were tasked with overseeing storage.

He said the individual has since been disciplined for breaching procedure, but would not elaborate on what disciplinary action was taken. He said vaccines are not shipped everyday and individuals responsible for receiving and storing shipments are expected to be knowledgeable as to what the procedure entails.

Ramsammy reiterated earlier comments that the temperature of the vaccine package was inconsistent with the recommended temperature on arrival.

This, he said, was observed since the vaccines arrived here and according to him, “whatever happened after that the vaccines would have had to be sent back”.

He said the problem was then compounded when the vaccines were placed in the freezer at the Kingston bond, noting this was not recommended.

However, he said the vaccines would have been returned whether they were placed in the freezer or not since the initial inconsistency was noted.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had to replace some $40 million worth of the H1N1 vaccines following the incident here. It was the first batch of vaccines to be shipped to the country and was provided free of cost.

Arrangements were immediately put in place to have the vaccines replaced after the ministry decided against any use of the first shipment.