Profiteers will face harsh penalties, health minister warns Officials who put profits before public health and safety will feel the full force of the law, Minister of Health Gao Qiang promised yesterday after the spoiled vaccine scandal that left one girl dead in Anhui province . Mr Gao told cadres in Xiuzhou city that the incident in Dazhuang township was a lesson for people and health officials around the country. Dazhuang is under the administration of Xiuzhou. 'Health departments are supposed to follow our country's laws and regulations seriously and do a good job in fighting diseases,' he said. 'Profit-making has no place in all that. 'We will never allow any bodies involved in inoculation work to put greed above public health - they will not escape punishment.' It was revealed at the weekend that four-year-old Dazhuang girl Li Wei died after being injected with a spoiled hepatitis A vaccine. Xinhua reported that 259 of the 2,500 other students who received the vaccine remained in hospital yesterday. It was also reported that the State Food and Drug Administration issued an urgent circular reminding all health units not to use the hepatitis vaccine made by the Zhejiang Pukang Biotech Co, which has been blamed for the scandal. In all, five batches of the vaccine were tainted, but there was no information on how many were used in Dazhuang. During yesterday's meeting, Mr Gao said the priority now was to provide the best treatment for the victims. He said medical staff across the mainland - not just in Dazhuang township - should review inoculation procedures and correct any mistakes. He promised that each student who fell ill in Dazhuang due to the vaccine would receive 20 yuan a day for living expenses while in hospital and said the state would pay for their medical bills. Earlier reports said medicine peddler Zhang Peng bought the vaccine from Pukang Biotech and sold it to the Dazhuang disease prevention centre at an inflated price. To save money, the vaccine was delivered to Dazhuang in non-refrigerated trucks, causing it to spoil. Without inspecting the vaccine, the centre organised the inoculation of 2,500 students in 17 villages under the township, charging them six times what it paid for the shots. Mr Zhang remains at large, but employees of the disease prevention centre have been detained for investigation. After interviewing some of the staff, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post yesterday reported that they blamed the centre's financial plight for their actions. Centre head Hou Huafeng said the government only paid enough wages for four staff, even though it had six employees. He said they did not seek approval from the county health department to administer the vaccines because they knew they would not get it.
