International   

China probes unsafe vaccines

BEIJING: China's Ministry of Health on Thursday ordered a probe into unsafe vaccines after a media report claimed they had caused the death of four children in the northern Shanxi province.

On Wednesday, the China Economic Times in an investigative report claimed that faulty vaccines sold by the local government between 2006 and 2008 led to the deaths of at least four children and left at least 74 sick. The paper blamed health authorities in Shanxi of storing the vaccines improperly and alleged that local officials had allowed an unqualified company to make the vaccines. Some officials were involved with the company, said the report. Four children aged between eight months and three years had died after being vaccinated, while others had developed encephalitis.

The health bureau of the Shanxi provincial government rejected the report, though the Ministry of Health in Beijing said the claims would be fully investigated. If accurate, this will only be the latest in a series of food and drug safety scandals here that have stoked public ire against the government; most evident in 2008 when tainted milk left more than 3,00,000 children ill.

Wary of the spread of public anger, authorities on Thursday moved quickly to restrict local newspapers in Shanxi from reporting on the deaths.

Even when the tainted milk scandal broke in 2008, one month before the Beijing Olympics, local newspapers were barred from reporting on children falling ill for more than two months. Chinese journalists had discovered in July 2008 that several provincial hospitals were reporting a large number of babies becoming sick after consuming milk powder made by Sanlu, one of the country's biggest dairy companies. The government acknowledged the milk scandal only in September, after the Olympics had concluded. By then, more than 3,00,000 babies and young children had fallen ill and six had died.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Drug menace: Hillary heads for Mexico
U.N. recognises Russia-led bloc
Marital trouble for Bullock, Winslet
Narrow lead for Maliki
China probes unsafe vaccines
U.S., Pakistan to hold dialogue
What about Gandhis, asks Rajapaksa
Zuma wins trust vote
Russia's continuing love affair with ice fishing
Accord to cancel Afghan debt

Copyright © 2010, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu