Vietnam Halts Use of Quinvaxem Vaccine on Pending WHO Investigation

The Ministry of Health May 6 suspended the use of Quinvaxem, a combined vaccine against five diseases among children, following six deaths across Vietnam over the past six months. Vietnam will wait for an investigation on the quality of the South Korea-made vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO), which affirmed that the vaccine is safe earlier this year after five fatalities were recorded. The vaccine continued to be used until the ban announced on May 4. All of the babies who died were in good health, but hours after receiving the vaccine they began wailing loudly, convulsed, and had serious trouble breathing, before passing away shortly after. Tests show no connection between the vaccine and the death or severe allergies, but there is no evidence to exclude the vaccine as a cause of death either, health officials said. Quinvaxem, produced by Berna Biotech Korea Corporation, protects babies aged less than one year against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type B (Hib). The vaccine has been advised for babies between two and four months old in 90 countries by the WHO, he said, however adding that the vaccine has not been used in South Korea. Each year, nearly 4.5 million doses of Quinvaxem vaccine were administered in Vietnam, he said. According to Trinh Quang Huan, former deputy health minister, out of the 42 batches of Quinvaxem vaccine imported by Vietnam, over 20 resulted in minor to severe allergic post-injection reactions. Dr Nguyen Tran Hien, head of the National Immunization Expansion Program, said that the rate of babies reacting to Quinvaxem vaccine in Vietnam was 0.69 per one million doses and the fatality rate was 0.17 per one million doses. (Tin Tuc – News May 7 p4, Tien Phong – Pioneer May 7 p2, Ha Noi Moi – New Hanoi May 7 p1)