Parents trek to tell vaccine horror stories
By Jane Chen |
March 20, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
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.
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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