Beijing News reported yesterday that corruption has been uncovered among those who organized the hepatitis A vaccination program in the eastern province of Anhui that left one student dead and hundreds ill last week. 

It said an investigation by Sixian County authorities found that health providers and schools overcharged students for injections given on June 16 and 17, after which one died last Thursday and some 200 remain ill in hospital.

In a deal between Dazhuang Township Healthcare and Epidemic Prevention Station and 19 schools in 17 villages, students were charged 25 yuan (US$3) for the immunization, which usually costs 6 yuan (72 US cents).

The epidemic prevention station gave 1 yuan (12 US cents) commission per shot to the schools, and village doctors who injected the students were offered a bonus.

It is unclear how many students, thought to be in the thousands, were inoculated, or whether there was a causal link between the corruption and the sickness resulting from the immunizations.

The suspect vaccine was produced by Zhejiang Pukong Biotech Co. Ltd., based in Hangzhou, the capital of neighboring Zhejiang Province. Sixian's Public Security Bureau and Drug Administration Bureau have sent a joint investigation team there to question them.

Four thousand shots were purchased in all, 1,000 from the county epidemic prevention center and 3,000 from a private supplier called Zhang Peng.

Zhang, who has since disappeared, was based in Chuzhou City in Anhui and is being sought by police for not having a license to sell medicine. Three health workers have been arrested in connection with the case. 

The Beijing News also claimed that some doctors involved in the program were not qualified to give vaccinations, and had not received any specific training.

A county government spokesperson, Wang Zhen, said it is still unknown precisely why the students became ill after receiving the injections, but according to the Drug Administration Bureau "the vaccines were not kept cool during their journey" so may have been tainted in transit.

Wang said that 20 pupils who had been seriously ill are now in a stable condition.

"After the death of the student, we organized free physical checkups for all vaccinated pupils," she added.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2005)