3 health workers arrested after hepatitis vaccine kills a schoolchild and makes 120 others ill

Jun 27 2005

After a hepatitis vaccine was administered in their schools in central China, one child died and another 120 have become ill.

As a result the police there have arrested three health workers.

The hepatitis A vaccine was administered without official permission by village doctors in Anhui's province's Sixian County, on June 16 and 17, to around 2,500 children in 19 schools.

According to local reports, the day after she received the vaccination, six-year-old , Li Wei, suffered an unspecified infection and breathing problems and died in hospital a few days later.

In the following days another 120 students had to be hospitalized, many complaining of dizziness, breathing difficulties and limb numbness.

As of Sunday, twenty students still remain in hospital.

The vaccinations were apparently purchased from a private vendor, Zhang Peng, who has since disappeared.

The authorities have detained Zhou Shimin, director of Anhui's Dazhuang Township Hospital, and Hou Huafeng, head of the Dazhuang Township Healthcare and Epidemic Prevention Station, and Zhou Shikai, a health worker who supposedly purchased the vaccines.

Samples of the vaccine are presently being being tested.

China is currently fighting the growth of counterfeit or substandard food, medicines, sanitary products and agricultural materials, all of which can directly affect public safety.

Also on June 16, in the southern Yunnan province, a homemade chicken pox vaccine killed a schoolchild and 151 students and a teacher became ill, many having to be hospitalized suffering from diarrhea and nausea after having the vaccine which was apparently made from traditional Chinese herbal medicines.