According to Anhui provincial health department, by June 26, a Hepatitis A vaccination program in Dazhuang Township, Sixian County in Anhui Province had sent 216 students to hospital, among them, 44 reported headache, dizziness and feeling run-down. So far 29 of them had been out of hospital while 187 are still under treatment.

Under the organization of Dazhuang Township Health Care and Epidemic Prevention Station, village doctors vaccinated about 2,500 students in 19 schools in 17 villages on June 16 and 17 without official permission. In the morning of June 17, some students reported sick and the number increased continuously. By June 26, the number of hospitalized students has reached 216, including a six-year-old girl dead.

Generally they reported headache, stuffy feeling in the chest, limb lassitude, breathing difficulties and limb convulsion with myocardial damage.

Upon receiving the report on the abnormal reaction, Anhui provincial health department promptly sent three batches of medical experts and two groups of immunization specialists from the province and the city of Suzhou to the spot, going all out for curing the sick and looking into the incident. The experts made serious studies on all hospitalized students and further improved the treatment program.

The city of Suzhou dispatched 20 medical workers to Sixian County for another screening test for all students vaccinated so as to ensure that not a single ill student be overlooked.

In addition, departments concerned have sealed the 3,448 live attenuated Hepatitis A vaccines of the same batch and informed all the medical departments in the province to stop using the vaccines produced by the same pharmaceutical factory. Investigators for the case are stepping up their work and have gone to trace the source of the vaccines in related areas.

By People's Daily Online