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Official refutes A(H1N1) vaccine suspension rumor

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-19 16:38

BEIJING: Beijing health authority said on Thursday that the A(H1N1) vaccine inoculation would not be suspended, dismissing a rumor circulating among the city's mobile phone subscribers.

"The inoculation would not be suspended," said Zhang Jianshu, director of the publicity department with Beijing Municipal Health Bureau. "Beijing has reported no serious case of adverse reaction."

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Zhang said some Beijing residents had received text messages saying that the city's municipal government would halt the ongoing inoculation before the A(H1N1) vaccine was reassessed. The messages did not give reasons why such a move would be made.

"No such decision has ever been made by the government," Zhang said. "It's totally baseless."

He said Beijing Public Security Bureau was tracing the rumor.

Deng Ying, director of the Beijing Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, said over 1.5 million Beijing residents had been inoculated as of Wednesday.

The A(H1N1) influenza cases accounted for nearly 90 percent of all flu cases reported in the Chinese mainland last week, which reported 10,828 cases of A(H1N1) flu from November 9 to 15, with 28 deaths.