Two people responsible for the deaths of a mother and a grandmother from rabies have been jailed, the Fengxian District People's Court of Shanghai said yesterday.

An Xiuya, an Anhui Province native, was sentenced to 11 years for selling fake medicine and Xia Renguan, a clinic operator, to seven years for illegal medical practice.

Xia was also ordered to pay 193,000 yuan (US$28,231) in compensation to Di Jianming for the death of his relatives.

On July 3, 2007, a dog that Di's family had been looking after in Situan Town, Fengxian District, bit four family members, including Di, his uncle Di Delin, his mother Zhu Zhanxian and his grandmother Yao Xiangcui. They were not seriously injured but the mother and the grandmother were bleeding so they were sent to Xia's clinic. Di Jianming and his uncle didn't go in order to save money.

"We had planned to go to the town hospital but it was too far. We heard that Xia's clinic had the vaccine on the way to hospital, so we chose his clinic," Di Jianming told the court.

A month later, Di Delin began to show symptoms and he died on August 9. Di Jianming immediately went to the town's center for disease control and prevention to get an injection.

On August 30 and 31, 2007, Zhu and Yao both fell sick and died soon after. Xia surrendered himself to the police. He had been doing good business because of his low charges though he had been fined twice by the health administration for not having a license.

Xia said An came to his clinic to promote a rabies vaccine in May 2007. The price, 20 yuan a bottle, was cheap and he bought 50 bottles.

An confessed he had known the vaccine was fake when he sold it.

The court said Xia had operated an illegal medical practice and An's sale of fake medicine had led to the deaths. Zhu and Yao would have survived if they had been given proper medicine, the court said.

(Shanghai Daily December 25, 2008)