More than 650,000 doses of DPT vaccine have been withdrawn in China

Almaty. November 8. Silkroadnews - More than 650,000 doses of DPT vaccine have been withdrawn in China, South China Morning Post reported.
“Government says batches of the diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus vaccine were ineffective, but pose no harm to health. More than 650,000 doses of a vaccine regularly given to babies and young children have been recalled in China after they were found to be ineffective,” the report says.
DPT vaccine doses have been withdrawn in the provinces of Shandong and Hebei, as well as in Chongqing.
During samples inspection the National Institute for Food and Drug Control found the vaccine were not working. Some doses of the vaccine had already been used before the withdrawal. The authorities are investigating the incident, and this can lead to prosecution.
China’s food and drug administration opened a hotline for parents who received the vaccine.
The DPT vaccines have been made free for children in China since the 1970s, since then diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus have been almost completely eradicated.
The recalled doses of the vaccine were produced in three batches by two plants last year. Changchun Changsheng Biotech produced one batch, or approximately one-third of the total number of vaccine doses, and sent them to a government-controlled Disease Prevention and Control Center in the eastern Shandong Province.
The other two batches were manufactured by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group. These have been shipped to the disease control centers in Chongqing and Hebei.