Commentary: No need to panic, but every reason to improve China's vaccination system

It is quite reasonable for people to feel aggrieved if millions of dollars' worth of black-market vaccines really have been distributed through medical institutions across China, but there is no need to panic.

Those most concerned with the matter, parents, should feel a little better since the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the vaccines in question posed very small risks. Furthermore, Chinese health authorities said on Thursday that no anomaly or abnormal responses to any vaccination had arisen in the past five years.

By checking their inoculation records against the list of vaccines involved in the case, parents find the vaccines all fall into China's second category of voluntary immunizations for rabies, hepatitis B, etc. rather than those compulsory for all children.

With 16 medical institutions involved, further information such as when each institution bought the vaccines and who received them, is still undisclosed.

There is every reason to question the regulatory and supervisory bodies that allowed such a thing to happen. It is inexplicable that the main suspect, a woman previously convicted of similar crimes, was given a suspended sentence and allowed to re-offend. It is just as surprising that it took several years for the case to reach the attention of authorities.

The reason given by the food and drug watchdog for their monumental lapse -- insufficient manpower -- cuts little ice.

Besides hiring and training more staff, such cases should be prevented by laws and regulations, perhaps by allowing only authorized bodies to distribute vaccines. Endi