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Another scandal about vaccines has erupted, adding to a series of recent incidents involving defective vaccines in China.
The latest scandal concerns the Boao-Yinfeng International Health Care Hospital, located on the island of Hainan in southern China. Managed by the private company Yinfeng Biological Group, this hospital has illegally vaccinated 38 people with the "HPV 9-valent" vaccine since last January, without obtaining a valid vaccination license, according to a report published on April 28 by Chinese state. Xinhua media quoted an announcement made by the Hainan Government Health Commission.
Of the 38 people, 37 were patients who each paid 9,000 yuan ($ 1,337) for vaccination, while one hospital employee was receiving the vaccine for free, the Hainan government announced on 28 April. The Health Commission sentenced the fine to 8,000 yuan ($ 1,188), confiscated all gains from 37 shots, and revoked the hospital's operating license.
The health commission is currently investing the source of these vaccines "anti-HPV 9-valent", according to this announcement.
Currently, Gardasil 9 is the only vaccine in the world "9-valent anti-HPV," which protects against 9 types of human papillomavirus (HPV), manufactured by the US pharmaceutical giant Merck. Untreated, HPV can cause cancer of the cervix and bad in women, as well as anus cancer and bad warts in humans. The Merck vaccine can be given in 2 or 3 injections.
While the US Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil 9 for the US market in December 2014, the vaccine was marketed in China only last May after approval by the Chinese regulator, according to Chinese media Caixin .
The current scandal drew public attention on April 22, when a user of the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, dubbed "Wang Xi Anna," said in a message that the hospital was administering fake anti-HIV vaccines. -HPV 9-valent.
Wang then spoke to China's state-run radio station CNR, explaining that she had received her first 9-valent HPV vaccine in January 2018, after hospital staff told her that The establishment was a test site that makes the HPV vaccine available in advance. of the May 2018 approval by the authorities.
Wang said she suspected the vaccine after receiving a call from a police officer from the Jiangsu coastal province of China. The police officer told him that the vaccine was a fake made in a factory in Siping City, Jilin Province, in northeastern China.
The policeman also informed Wang that the factory had a warehouse in Jiangsu, which was providing fake vaccines in many parts of China. The officer also contacted other patients in the hospital who received the vaccine. It is unclear how the agent knew he had received the so-called fake HPV vaccine.
Ms. Chen from Hainan, who also received the hospital's vaccine, told CN that she had since gone to another hospital for a checkup. However, the hospital could not tell her if she was immune to HPV from the vaccine she had received, or if it was likely to present health risks.
In an announcement on its official website on April 28, the hospital blamed the illegal vaccination at a beauty institute in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, in eastern China.
The hospital said the beauty salon, with which it had previously signed a cooperation agreement, had promoted and administered HPV vaccines "of unknown origin" without his knowledge. The statement did not provide further details, but indicated that the facility was cooperating with the authorities as part of their investigation.
The Hainan government confirmed in its announcement that the hospital had illegally granted its medical aesthetic license to this Qingdao beauty salon under a cooperation agreement signed in November 2017, which was expiring in July 2018. But the authorities did not specify whether this beauty salon was involved or not. obtain or administer illegal vaccines.
Another woman who received the vaccine, Zheng Li (pseudonym), told the paper The Paper that she was skeptical about the hospital's claim that he was unaware of the vaccines. When she received her first shot in March 2018, her vaccination card and receipt were stamped by the hospital.
Last year, a scandal rocked China after the Chinese pharmaceutical company Changsheng Bio-technology delivered more than 250,000 doses of a defective DTap vaccine (a combination vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus), affecting more than 200,000 children.
Mainland Chinese citizens traveled to Hong Kong and Taiwan to receive some vaccines, including Gardasil 9, because of their lack of confidence in the safety of Chinese vaccines.
On Weibo, Chinese netizens have been outraged by the news of the vaccine scandal.
A netizen from Zhejiang Province wrote, "Can we reinforce [the country’s] regulation on vaccines? Can there be a harsher punishment for vaccine-related crimes? "
Several Internet users were shocked by the small fine that the hospital had to pay, considering that the health of people could be threatened.
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