China's Ministry of Health has launched an investigation into a report that defective vaccines had killed or disabled up to 100 children in Shanxi province and has asked the Shanxi provincial health department to report abnormalities caused by the vaccines as soon as possible.
There have been extensive reports on online media in China concerning the suspect vaccines which reportedly had killed four children and disabled at least 74 in Shanxi. The reports say that the problematic vaccines had been sold in Shanxi since 2006, and Shanxi Center for Disease Prevention and Control is responsible for the tragedy as it had exposed the vaccines to heat in summer and was involved in illegal trading of the vaccines.
Despite widespread accusations, officials from Shanxi health department stated that they had not received any reports regarding abnormalities caused the vaccines and that the reports in the media are basically untrue.
In November 2008 the MOH conducted an investigation on vaccines allegedly exposed to high temperature and the results showed that all the test samples were up to standard. In addition, the regular checks done by the State Food and Drug Administration on vaccines associated with the same problem also show that all the samples are of acceptable quality.
