China says probing report on deadly faulty vaccines

[cory777]

Source: Reuters

Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:23am GMT
By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Health Ministry is probing a report in a domestic newspaper that faulty vaccines in northern Shanxi province were responsible for killing four children and making dozens of others sick.

China has been beset by a series of product safety scandals over the past few years. At least six children died in 2008 after drinking milk contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine.

In 2003 and 2005, three Chinese children suffered severe brain damage after being vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis. Their parents blamed a substandard vaccine, something the government denied.

In the latest case, the China Economic Times reported four children died and at least 74 others became sick in the poor inland province of Shanxi, after getting vaccinated against illnesses including encephalitis, hepatitis B and rabies.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE62H0G620100318