Beijing News reported yesterday that corruption has been
uncovered among those who organized the hepatitis A vaccination
program in the eastern province of Anhui
that left one student dead and hundreds ill last week.?
It said an investigation by Sixian County
authorities found that health providers and schools overcharged
students for injections given on June 16 and 17, after which one
died last Thursday and some 200 remain ill in hospital.
In a deal between Dazhuang Township Healthcare and
Epidemic Prevention Station and 19 schools in 17 villages, students
were charged 25 yuan (US$3) for the immunization, which usually
costs 6 yuan (72 US cents).
The epidemic prevention station gave 1 yuan (12 US
cents) commission per shot to the schools, and village doctors who
injected the students were offered a bonus.
It is unclear how many students, thought to be in
the thousands, were inoculated, or whether there was a causal link
between the corruption and the sickness resulting from the
immunizations.
The suspect vaccine was produced by Zhejiang Pukong
Biotech Co. Ltd., based in Hangzhou, the capital of neighboring Zhejiang
Province. Sixian's Public Security Bureau and Drug
Administration Bureau have sent a joint investigation team there to
question them.
Four thousand shots were purchased in all, 1,000
from the county epidemic prevention center and 3,000 from a private
supplier called Zhang Peng.
Zhang, who has since disappeared, was based in
Chuzhou City in Anhui and is being sought by police for not having
a license to sell medicine. Three health workers have been arrested
in connection with the case.?
The Beijing News also claimed that some
doctors involved in the program were not qualified to give
vaccinations, and had not received any specific training.
A county government spokesperson, Wang Zhen, said
it is still unknown precisely why the students became ill after
receiving the injections, but according to the Drug Administration
Bureau "the vaccines were not kept cool during their journey" so
may have been tainted in transit.
Wang said that 20 pupils who had been seriously ill
are now in a stable condition.
"After the death of the student, we organized free
physical checkups for all vaccinated pupils," she added.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency June 28,
2005)