Editorials

Cure diseased management

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-09 07:53

Editor's note: The Ministry of Health must tighten its control and monitoring throughout the entire chain of manufacturing, managing and the inoculations of vaccines.

The seemingly tidy ratio of diseases from vaccines in Jiangxi province is no excuse for health officials to get lazy in monitoring and supervising the production, transportation and inoculation of vaccines.

The 45 cases of disease in more than 9 million children in Jiangxi inoculated with vaccines comes out to a tidy ratio of 4.96 per million. That mark is lower than the 10 per million standard accepted by the World Health Organization.

The first thing the provincial health bureau must do is compensate the families who have suffered because of their children's vaccine-related diseases. Bureau authorities say they are checking the expenses every family has spent in treating their children's ailments.

The problematic rabies vaccines reported recently in some southern provinces is a reminder that some vaccine producers do cut corners in production and quality examinations. Some reports have revealed that some local disease control and prevention departments have profited from promoting the sales of vaccines.

It is illegal and dangerous for local disease control and prevention departments to get involved in the sales of vaccines. It will compromise their roles as taxpayer-supported watchdogs.

A government investigation is needed. It must dig deeper into the causes of the problematic rabies vaccines to make sure corruption wasn't a factor. The producers of faulty vaccines must be stripped of their qualifications to produce vaccines.

The Ministry of Health must tighten its control and monitoring throughout the entire chain of manufacturing, managing and the inoculations of vaccines.

(China Daily 04/09/2010 page8)