44 Chinese students hospitalised

BEIJING - Forty-four students were hospitalised after they were given Hepatitis B vaccine in China’s Guangdong province, officials said Friday.

Out of 84 students administered the vaccine at a primary school in Jieyang city Thursday, 44 developed symptoms of a reaction, including vomiting, stomach aches and dizziness, Wu Junqiu, head of the disease prevention and control centre was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

While the throats of five students were still inflamed Friday, 39 had got better and had slight stomach pains only, he said.

More than 90,000 doses of the Hepatitis vaccine had been administered, but no other cases of abnormal reaction has been reported, he said.

However, authorities have stopped further use of the remaining vaccine, whose shelf life was till Sep 1, 2010, and which was produced in Shenzhen city in Guangzhou province.