Ministry of Health: measles vaccine not 'chronic poison'

Starting Sept. 11, China will carry out nationwide measles immunizations. Recently, some netizens questioned this large-scale vaccination and doubted the safety of the vaccines. They said that "the measles vaccine is a chronic poison," according to Beijing News on Tuesday.

The measles vaccines have been used since 1996 and the quality is guaranteed, said Hao Yang, vice director with the Disease Control and Prevention Center of the Ministry of Health, on Monday.

Before this, Zhao Kai, immunization program expert advisory committee chairman with the Ministry of Health, had said vaccines to be used are mainly from manufactures in Shanghai, Wuhan, Lanzhou and Beijing, and will not include imported vaccines.

When responding to the online questions about how China can carry out 100 million vaccines at one time and whether other countries have had success with immune strengthening vaccinations, Hao said the preparation work for the immunizations started last year and there are now more than 110 million vaccines.

It is understood that the World Health Organization regards immunizations as the most effective way to prevent the disease. The United States carried out this activity between 1989 and 1995 and no local measles viruses have been found since November 2002.

By Liang Jun, People's Daily Online