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Parents join complaints of tainted vaccines

PARENTS of dozens of children who died or fell sick after vaccinations in northern China are gathering in Taiyuan City to tell their stories to investigators from the Health Ministry.

The investigation was launched after China Economic Times reported on Wednesday that four children had died in Shanxi Province and another 76 were seriously ill after vaccinations against Hepatitis B, rabies and encephalitis B, today's Luzhong News reported.


Though Shanxi Health Bureau denied the report that night, China Economic Times defended its investigation, which found evidence of vaccines tainted by poor storage.

"We will go to Taiyuan to tell our stories face to face to the investigators to help them learn the truth," parent Gao Changhong from Jiaokou County told Luzhong News.

The parents are coming from Luliang, Gaoping, Linfen and Yuncheng cities, the newspaper said.

The vaccines may have been tainted by poor storage and some shots were given in the wrong season, China Economic Times cited Chen Tao'an, a former official with the Shanxi Province Disease Prevention & Control Center, as saying.

Chen said complaints to Shanxi health authorities had fallen on deaf ears.

Li Gui, head of the bureau's disease control and prevention section, told Xinhua news agency that a group appointed by the Ministry of Health carried out investigations in November 2008 and certified the sample vaccines as safe, Li said.

But an official surnamed Zhao with the Health Ministry's supervising unit denied Li's account, saying the probe had focused on administration rather than the vaccines.

The former head of Shanxi Disease Control & Prevention Center was removed a month ago and is being investigated for economic problems, according to vice director Zhang Jiemin.


 

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