Thursday, December 26, 2013

Vaccine deaths in China?

BBC report on possible vaccine related deaths from Hepatitis B vaccine given to infants.

No previous problem with this vaccine: I wonder if it was made wrong...adulterated and counterfeit medicines are a major problem in China (and India) and here, where they can be sold as the real thing.

another question: Does this company make vaccines that are used in other countries?

NYTimes story here.

Investigators have not determined the cause of the deaths or linked them directly to the injections, but the cases come at a time of growing public concern in China about food and drug safety problems.
In recent years, China has been troubled by a series of scandals, including tainted rice and milk and the mysterious appearance of thousands of dead pigs floating in the Huangpu River in Shanghai. China has vowed repeatedly to crack down on food and drug safety violations and has moved to strengthen the powers of health officials.
In the vaccine cases, the government is focusing on the role of Shenzhen Kangtai, a privately run drug maker formed in 1992 with government support and the cooperation of the American pharmaceutical company Merck.

further down, it says the vaccine is to stop the two million cases of Hepatitis B that occur every year...it is a wicked disease, and many doctors caught it in the past (especially surgeons) because of contact with blood...a friend of mine got it from his spouse who caught it from a patient, and ended up with a liver transplant...

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