Chinese vaccines scandal should not affect child immunization rates

with two vaccines manufactured in China – one of which was distributed to clinics and possibly injected to hundreds of thousands of children – led to arrests and have is in the headlines of international newspapers But researchers studying vaccination in China are not expecting a major effect on the country's high vaccination rates.

Comprehensive support for immunization programs, coupled with stringent vaccine requirements for children starting school, means that most parents will continue to vaccinate their children, she says

. Says Abram Wagner, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who interviewed Chinese parents about their views on immunization

. July 15, the Chinese pharmaceutical monitoring agency revealed that during a surprise inspection of Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology vaccine manufacturer facilities in the northeastern province of Jilin, the company had skewed the production data of several lots. The authorities ordered that the doses be eliminated and revoked the company's manufacturing license for this vaccine; It is not clear if anyone has received the defective doses.

Five days later, local government investigators announced that the same company had violated the standards by producing approximately 250,000 doses of DPT vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, making doses potentially ineffective . For this violation, the company says that she was fined 3.44 million yuan (US $ 505,000).

It is unclear how many children have received the defective DTP vaccines, which were recalled when the problem was discovered by the authorities in November, but until now no health problems have occurred. has been reported. The main concern is that these vaccines will not protect children from the dangerous infections they're supposed to fight, says Wagner.

P arents turned to social media to express their anger at the company and their concerns about home vaccines. But Xiaomin Wang, a social scientist at the Institute of Social Medicine at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, agrees that the scandal should not reduce child immunization rates.

In 2016, when Chinese authorities discovered that childhood vaccines rendered ineffective by inadequate storage had been distributed to medical clinics across the country for five years, Wang and her colleagues went to ask parents for their opinions about vaccines. They found ¹ that parents had very little faith in the safety of locally produced vaccines, which make up 95% of the vaccines donated in China – only 11% said they trusted them. But researchers also found that more than half of the parents surveyed still intended to rely on them to vaccinate their children. The disparity between parents' confidence in household vaccines and their willingness to use them is likely influenced by several factors, including cost and availability, according to Leesa Lin, one of Wang's collaborators, who studies social behavior and perception of risk in the parents. Although the government subsidizes many home-made vaccines, those who have access to vaccines manufactured abroad and who can afford them are likely to seek them, says Lin. "When an incident like this happens, the public could look for safer alternatives but would not give up on vaccination," she says.

She attributes this, in part, to a widespread understanding of the benefits of vaccines after decades of government campaigns to promote immunization. China has one of the highest immunization coverage rates in the world – for example, 99% of Chinese infants receive the required three doses of DTP vaccine, compared to 85% of infants in the world and 95% in the United States. United. Lin and the team are about to submit for publication the results of another survey that confirms that parents strongly believe in the benefits of immunization programs.

These results contrast with the attitudes of some small groups of parents in Europe and around the world. United States who resist the vaccination of their children, citing unsubstantiated safety concerns or religious reasons, says Lin. "In China, these factors do not play a big role."

Lin and Wang plan to re-investigate parents in the coming months to better understand the factors that influence their decisions.

Wagner notes that the DTP vaccine is mandatory for children who start school in China and credits these requirements with the country's high vaccine consumption. Some parents may delay vaccination as a result of the latest alert, but it is unlikely that they risk seeing their child being denied entry to school, he says. He adds that it is particularly difficult to obtain an exemption from these requirements in China compared to other countries that have similar rules.

Repairing Trust

Wagner hopes that Chinese officials will be more transparent about what happened in Changchun Changsheng during the 2016 scandal and take firmer measures to prevent another incident. At the time, the government promised to improve surveillance of vaccine manufacturing and transportation, he said. "They talked a lot, but I'm not sure what they did," he says. "I hope they will learn from this event and put in place stricter regulations."

There are already encouraging signs. Several leaders of Changchun Changsheng, including the president, were arrested, and Chinese President Xi Jinping said the events were shocking and ordered an investigation into the vaccine production chain. "It's a step forward from the last time," Lin says.

Chinese vaccine manufacturers will also have to convince international markets that their vaccines are safe and effective if the country wants to become a major world producer, says Wagner. "Vaccines and pharmaceuticals could be a huge industry for them."