Health Ministry disproves rumor on vaccination-caused A/H1N1 outbreak in Beijing

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ministry of Health on Monday disproved an online rumor that the recent A/H1N1 influenza outbreak in Beijing was caused by vaccination among students for the country's National Day celebration.

"The rumor violates scientific theories and does not consist with the truth," said the ministry's spokesman Mao Qunan. "It is totally fabrication."

Reports on some foreign websites said primary and secondary school students in Beijing were given vaccine shots to prevent A/H1N1 influenza before the People's Republic of China celebrated its 60th founding anniversary on Oct. 1. And those vaccines had led to the recent outbreak in the capital city.

The spokesman said that Beijing did not carry out large-scale vaccination among primary and secondary school students before the National Day.

Besides, no epidemic outbreak would occur among people who have already been given vaccination, since the vaccine was proved to be effective, he added.

As the first country that issued a production license for A/H1N1 vaccines, China had inoculated more than 3.78 million people as of Saturday, with no reports of serious adverse reaction, according to the ministry.

About 33.4 million doses of vaccines have been approved for use as of Oct. 31, 26 million of which have been dispatched to local medical institutions.

Calculating the current product abilities of the eight domestic vaccine manufacturers, a total of 100 million doses of A/H1N1 flu vaccines will be produced by the first quarter of next year, according to the ministry.

But for now, about 390 million people on the Chinese mainland needed the flu shots including service personnel of the People's Liberation Army and armed police forces, police, medical staff, teachers, students, people working at key public service posts, and patients with chronic or cardiovascular diseases, experts said.

As of Monday, more than 48,000 confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases had been reported on the Chinese mainland, 74 percent of whom had recovered. Among the 118 serious cases, 84 were still in hospital, the ministry said.

The Chinese mainland has reported seven deaths from the flu since Oct. 2.