China - Four Infants Dead And 76 Ill From Vaccines Disaster

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China - Four Infants Dead And 76 Ill

From Vaccines Disaster

 

 

 

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China - Four Infants Dead And 76 Ill From

Vaccines Disaster

 

 

 

 

2010-3-20

Parents

trek to tell vaccine horror stories

By Jane Chen

 

 

STUNG by officials' denials, parents of scores

of children who allegedly died or were sickened after getting vaccines

are traveling to Shanxi Province's capital city of Taiyuan to tell

their stories of misery to investigators from the Health Ministry.

 

 

The vaccination accusations were first reported

on Wednesday by China Economic Times.

 

 

The Shanxi Health Bureau quickly denied the

report, saying it checked with 10 children said to be victims and found

only one of them had abnormal reactions to the vaccines.

 

 

However, China Economic Times soon issued a

statement strongly defending itself and saying it had collected enough

proof to back up its story.

 

 

Disappointed by the way the Shanxi health

authorities handled the case, parents said they will go to the

provincial capital, Taiyuan City, to tell their stories "face to face"

to the investigators to help them learn the truth, one of the parents

told Luzhong News.

 

 

The parents are coming from Luliang, Gaoping,

Linfen and Yuncheng cities, the newspaper said yesterday.

 

 

According to the China Economic Times report,

two babies and two toddlers in Shanxi died and another 76 became ill

after being jabbed against hepatitis B, rabies and Type-B encephalitis.

 

 

The vaccines may have been tainted by poor

storage and some shots were given in the wrong season, said the report,

citing Chen Tao'an, a former official with the Shanxi Province Disease

Prevention & Control Center.

 

 

Chen told the newspaper complaints to Shanxi

health authorities fell on deaf ears.

 

 

The vaccines, which should be refrigerated to

keep active, were piled up in a building without air-conditioning, even

in summer heat, and the truck transporting the vaccines was not cooled,

Chen said.

 

 

He said he had seen workers sweating in pants

while labeling the vaccines in the muggy building.

 

 

Center authorities encouraged people to get

vaccinated against Type-B encephalitis, a disease spread by mosquitoes,

in autumn of 2006 -- the wrong season for the insects, he added.

 

 

"Spoiled vaccines should be destroyed according

to law rather than put in use on humans," he pointed out.

 

 

Chen was removed from his post at the center in

July 2005 along with other leading officials of the center. A vaccine

distribution unit launched later was headed by Tian Jianguo, who was

also the general manager of Huawei Shidai Co -- the unit's only vaccine

supplier, Chen said.

 

 

Shanxi's health bureau said late on Wednesday

that an agency appointed by the state food and drug watchdog tested

samples of the stored vaccines, and that they all complied with

national standards with no adverse reactions reported.

 

 

But an official surnamed Zhao with the Health

Ministry's supervising unit denied the bureau's account, saying they

only investigated the center's administrative issues, not the vaccines.

 

 

The Shanghai Health Bureau said yesterday there

were no reports of severe side effects on children after receiving

vaccinations in the city. Vaccinations in the city are going on as

normal.

 

 

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