A scandal of adulterated vaccines puts Chinese health in question again



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Beijing .- Chinese authorities ordered an inspection of all vaccines in the country, following the scandal caused by the possible alteration of these products which cast doubt on the credibility of the domestic sector of health.

During the campaign, which began on Wednesday, teams of inspectors will investigate the entire vaccine manufacturing process of all producers in the country, announced the Administration of State of the medicines.

The inspection comes after the scandal Changsheng Biotech, accused of falsifying data on 113 000 freeze-dried vaccines against rabies for human use.

Already in October last year, the company was fined $ 500,000 for the low efficacy of 250,000 other vaccines against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, which forced the authorities to proceed with a mbadive withdrawal of these products and to revaccinate more than 200,000

The Changsheng headquarters in Changchun City (north-east) was inspected without notice from July 6 to 8, following the denunciation of An anonymous employee about their practices through the social network WeChat (similar to Twitter) who mentioned these irregularities

The complaint, which was quickly wiped out by censorship without stopping the scandal, also talked about Decades of illegal practices within this company and irregularities in the production of other drugs to prevent diseases such as hepatitis B or chickenpox.

The chairman of the cabinet, Gao Junfang, and 14 other directors of Changsheng Biotech were arrested for the scandal, while today announced a judicial process for corruption and bribes against Cui Honghai , former director of the drug administration in Jilin Province, where is the company.

The scandal follows similar cases of Adulteration Vaccines in the Asian giant and has again generated doubts and protests among consumers.

In social networks, angry parents like Yi Zhi pointed out that while the Chinese government is now encouraging families to have a second child, there is "The scandal has led Chinese President Xi Jinping to qualify the illegalities of Changsheng Biotech of "scary and terrible."

The pro-government daily Global Times, linked to the Communist Party, warned this week that the case "can lead the country into chaos and create serious uncertainty" , and the independent press recalled that cases Similar adulterated drugs have caused many parents to take their children abroad for different treatment.

Many went to Hong Kong and Macau, where they are vaccine supply problems, so that some medical centers in these autonomous territories, with health systems independent of the rest of China, started to prepare for possible avalanches of patients from the continent.

One of the scandals that triggered these waves of mistrust occurred in March 2016, when Chinese authorities dismantled a network that had been illegally marketing vaccines since 2011 and involving 16 vaccination centers, resulting in the withdrawal of two millions of doses.

] These vaccines were not transported under the necessary conditions, especially with respect to permanent refrigeration, so the authorities warned that they could cause disability and even death.

Many Chinese netizens said they have not trusted for a long time many products intended for children, infant milk vaccines, in the latter In the wake of a scandal caused by the contamination of this food by the melamine, which killed six people and affected 300,000 people in 2008.

In response to criticism and uncertainty, the China Center for Disease Prevention and Control has noted great progress in combating contagious diseases through national immunization programs.

Measles cases, for example, increased from nine million a year in the mid-twentieth century to less than 6,000 in 2017, while meningitis, which affected three million people in the 1960s, was reduced to just 200 cases last year. EFE

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