Hong Kong to stockpile unwanted swine-flu vacccine

January 28, 2010 08:59 pm | Updated 08:59 pm IST - Hong Kong

Hong Kong health officials said on Thursday that they planned to stockpile a large amount of swine-flu vaccines left unused after people shunned the free jabs because of safety concerns.

Health Secretary York Chow said they would not be giving away or selling the vaccines and instead planned to stockpile them as insurance against a future outbreak.

So far, 1,50,421 doses from a stock of 3 million, which expire in October, have been used.

The announcement came after injections of the vaccine reached a record daily low Wednesday with 1,100 people being vaccinated.

Chow said officials had expected some degree of wastage when they ordered 3 million doses of the Sanofi Pasteur vaccine for the city of 7 million.

“If there is no severe outbreak of the pandemic and if there is no high demand for it, of course, some of them will not be used at all,” he said. “It is important that I have mentioned time and again that this is an insurance to ensure that in times of need, we actually have the supply.” The vaccine has been offered free to high-risk groups, including health workers, pregnant women, babies and the elderly.

However, the response has been lukewarm and deteriorated as health concerns grew after two people had seizures and two pregnant women had stillborn babies after receiving the vaccine.

Chow has urged people in vulnerable groups to continue having the vaccines, saying there was no proven link between the cases and the flu jabs.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.