Guangdong's public health authorities issued guidelines to tackle vaccinations' side effects, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Wednesday.

The notice came after dozens of pupils showed symptoms of anaphylactic shock after vaccination against hepatitis A and were hospitalized in eastern China's Anhui Province last week. They felt sick, light-headed and found it hard to breath. Experts later confirmed the symptoms were a reaction to the vaccination.

Guangdong and Hebei in northern China was chosen by the national center of disease control (CDC) as the two provinces to conduct a two-year monitoring project on vaccinations' side effects, the report said.

The guideline required medical institutions to install an immediate response reporting system. Any institutions that find people have a high fever of more than 38.5 degrees Celsius after vaccination, or anaphylactic symptoms for more than three hours, or swollen parts in five days of vaccination, should report the cases to the local CDC in six hours for urban areas and in 12 hours for rural areas.

Local CDCs should confirm the cases and report to higher-level CDCs accordingly.

In emergencies when group injury or death occurs, the report time should be shortened to two hours.

The guidelines stated that medical institutions should always hand monthly reports even if there were no side effects.

(Shenzhen Daily June 24, 2005)