On July 21, an article called “King of Vaccines” quickly exploded in WeChat’s circle of friends, attracting more than one million attention. This article pushed the issue of vaccine safety to the forefront.
The incident started last week, initially because one batch of rabies vaccine from Changchun Changsheng Enterprise had a problem, and then it was reported that two batches of DPT vaccine from Changchun Changsheng and Wuhan Biology had also had an accident, causing public outcry.
Relatively speaking, although the mortality rate of rabies is extremely high and the incidence rate is low, the problem rabies vaccine is not on the market. However, parents across the country were in panic when the DPT vaccine accident occurred:
- DPT is a kind of (free) vaccine, which is used to prevent whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus, three more critical diseases, and must be vaccinated. The number of batches found to have problems is as high as 650,000, a large number and shocking.
After the incident, many parents were in the background of various groups, even Dr. Clove, to verify and consult.
Dr. Clove sorted out the problems that everyone was most concerned about and tried to answer them one by one from a scientific and objective point of view.
Question 1: What are the DPT vaccines related to the incident?
A: The DPT vaccine incident was actually a problem at the end of last year, specifically including two production enterprises, Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. And Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd.
Official data show that this batch of [problematic vaccines] is mainly circulated in Changchun to Shandong, while those produced in Wuhan are mainly sold to Chongqing and Hebei provinces.
Q: Is there a what problem with the DPT vaccine related to the incident?
A: The main problem with DPT vaccine is that the titer index is not up to standard.
The consequence is that it may affect the immune protection effect, but it is not harmful to human body.
The announcement of the State Food and Drug Administration showed that the main problem of DPT vaccine was found that the [titer determination] item did not conform to the regulations during the inspection.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission and the health and family planning departments of Hebei, Shandong and Chongqing provinces (cities) organized experts to evaluate the situation in November last year and promised to take corresponding measures to properly handle the situation according to the evaluation results.
Question 3: Will there be what consequences after the [problem vaccine] is given? Is it possible to have a legacy?
A: This batch of vaccines has no impact on the safety of human body. The biggest risk is that they may fail, resulting in the inability to prevent corresponding diseases.
Many parents worry that their children will suffer from other sequelae if they are vaccinated with problematic vaccines.
In fact, the common adverse reactions of vaccines include local redness, swelling, heat pain, fever, allergy, etc., which are generally relatively mild. However, allergy and other serious cases have a very low incidence rate. For most people, vaccines are safe.
Adverse reactions caused by vaccines mostly occur within 24-48 hours after vaccination, and the possibility of recurrence or sequelae is very small.
Question 4: How do you determine whether you have been vaccinated with unqualified vaccines? What if you get the DPT vaccine involved?
Answer: Parents can check the DPT vaccination records on the children’s vaccination certificate, compare the vaccine manufacturers and batch numbers, and also consult the vaccination units at that time.
DPT vaccine should be vaccinated once at the age of 3, 4, 5 months and 18 months respectively, with a total of 4 times.
Normally, children who have completed 4 vaccinations can get better protection effect:
- The effectiveness of preventing typical whooping cough is about 85%. The protective effect of tetanus is 80 ~ 100%. Vaccination for more than 3 times has a protective effect of about 95% on diphtheria.
However, the two batches of DPT vaccine that were reported did not meet the titer index, which may affect the immune protection effect.
If parents determine that their children are vaccinated with the DPT vaccine involved, they can consult the local disease control department or vaccination unit to see if they want to continue replanting according to the number and batch of vaccination.
Question 5: The child has not been vaccinated against DPT. Can he be vaccinated?
A: Yes.
DPT vaccine can effectively prevent three critical diseases. At present, only these two batches have had accidents, and other batches have no problems for the time being.
Moreover, the DPT vaccine involved in the previous incident has stopped vaccination, so it will not be encountered if it is taken again, and parents need not worry too much.
Don’t stop injecting your child just because you are worried about vaccine problems.
If parents really have doubts, they can give priority to the combination vaccine or choose vaccines produced by other more trusted enterprises.
Question 6: Other types of vaccines vaccinated by my children are also related to the enterprises involved. Do they also need to be replanted?
A: For the time being, there are no problems with other batches of other vaccines. It is recommended that everyone calm down and keep an eye on them.
Vaccine replanting has certain risks, so don’t blindly replant.
Dr. Clove will pay close attention to the progress of the incident and broadcast it to everyone in the first place.
Question 7: In order to prevent the problem vaccine from being vaccinated, can I not vaccinate my children?
A: You can’t stop eating because of choking. You can’t give up vaccination because of fear. Children are the ones with the highest risk.
At present, the reason why the country can control diphtheria, whooping cough and neonatal tetanus at a relatively low level is due to the extremely high vaccination rate.
If all vaccinations are refused because of the vaccine panic caused by these incidents, then everyone must be injured.
Monitoring data from the State Food and Drug Administration show that since 2008, 944 batches of vaccine products have been sampled under the National Drug Sampling Plan, with a qualified rate of 99.6%, which means that most vaccines are very safe.
Hepatitis B, measles and whooping cough prevented by Class I vaccines and chickenpox prevented by Class II vaccines all pose a great threat to children’s health.
Therefore, vaccination is still the best way to protect health, and we should still insist on vaccination.
Vaccines are the most favorable weapon for human beings to fight infectious diseases. Only when enough people are vaccinated can they form a wide and powerful defense.
The development of the matter so far does not mean that the matter has come to an end. Everyone should be on guard.
We are more concerned about:
- How safe are the other batches of vaccines produced by Changchun Changsheng and other manufacturers involved? What are the specific measures to deal with the aftermath? Is it in place? How to prevent it from happening next time? Will illegal enterprises finally accept how’s severe punishment?
These questions have not been answered yet, and we will continue to pay attention to them.
However, those violators who play with people’s health must pay the price.
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