Surveillance medical officer of WHO in Daltonganj, Walema Devgam, UNICEF regional coordinator Manish Priyadarshi and district programme manager health Deepak Kumar will hold a joint inquiry into the abandonment of more than six vaccine cases in Palamau.

The cases were recovered from the Jharee government sub health centre under Hussainabad subdivision on Monday.

Civil surgeon Palamau, John F. Kennedy said that the probe will begin on Wednesday, and the report will be submitted within 48 hours. He added that medical officer-in-charge of the sub-divisional hospital at Hussainabad, Dr Ratnesh Kumar, has been asked to explain why this happened. He has been asked to separately submit a report within 24 hours.

The vaccine cases were found outside its collection point setup at Jharee, where it stayed abandoned from Monday. They were later sent to the cold chain points, sources said.

The carries should have been duly deposited at the cold chain point and not thrown away hazardously even within the campus of the health centre, they said.

An ANM named Prabha Kumari and her team are under the scanner of the officials regarding the issue. The role of the helpers is to be minutely looked into during the probe, said sources.

It was not clear if the cases had vials of unused vaccines in them. The reports of the two teams will make it clear.

Health Secretary KK Soan has also asked DC Palamau Sashi Ranjan to look into the matter.