One dead and more than 200 poisoned by vaccines which "went bad" in China

Pupils of a Dazhuang primary school are poisoned by a routine vaccination against Hepatitis A

Beijing (AsiaNews/agencies) – A routine vaccination against Hepatitis A has caused the death of a little girl and poisoned hundreds of other children in a primary school in Shuiliu in Anhui province. Four-year-old Li Wei died after a week of agony: around 200 her friends have liver and spleen damage and more than 20 have serious difficulties to breathe.

The province public security authorities said the vaccine had "gone bad" because "it was not transported in a refrigerated room as prescribed by law". Besides, continued the authorities, the vaccine was sold to the local health agency by an unauthorised dealer – now a wanted man – for 4.5 yuan (around 44 Euro cents) per unit. The man had not used refrigerated rooms for transport to save on costs, and he inflated the price of the vaccination: 25 yuan (around 2.47 Euros) for each pupil instead of 6 (59 Euro cents), the price set by health laws.

The vaccines came from a firm in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, now placed under surveillance: 1,000 vaccines not yet administered were sent to the institute responsible for drugs monitoring in Beijing. The head of purchasing of the Dazhuang health agency was arrested "for having bought vaccines from an unauthorized dealer" and "for cheating families of children by asking them for a price four times higher than the receipt issued". The director of health of Dazhuang hospital was also arrested among others. The director of the pediatrics department said "many children suffered more harm than if they had swallowed pesticides."

Around 2,500 pupils in 19 primary schools in the municipality of Dazhuang were vaccinated against Hepatitis A on 16 and 17 June.  

• china
• health
• children
• vaccination
• hepatitis
• a
• corruption
• poisoning