China is facing one of the biggest health scandals as it looks into the mishandling of vaccines in the country. The case came into the limelight last month as Chinese authorities announced that they had found nine companies selling expired or mistreated vaccines. This means that a large number of children may have been injected with vaccines, offering no benefits and potentially causing some side effects.

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China has filed 192 criminal cases across the country. Authorities have also apprehended 202 people so far. Further, the country is also likely to ban 45 groups from dealing in vaccines.

The officials claim that the suspected vaccines were manufactured under prescribed conditions and the chances of them causing any diseases are minimal.

The scandal has brought attention to lax health regulations in the country. In 2008, China had a similar incident where six infants died due to consuming tainted infant milk formula. Thousands of other children were hospitalized. China's drug supply chain is marred by shoddy middlemen and lack of proper infrastructure, critics claim.

In order to salvage the situation, China is now endeavoring to tighten its regulatory environment. The country is looking to oversee the distribution and storage of vaccines. It has also ordered the demotion or dismissal of 357 government officials in the wake of latest mishap. Earlier in 2015, two women were arrested for selling $88 million worth of vaccines, which were improperly transported and stored.

Officials are now tracing vaccines from production to end use stage. While regulations are lax, there is also a deficiency of vaccines, primarily due to 'red tapism.'

With the new scandal, the country is likely to take stringent measures to avoid reoccurrence of such incidents.

Tagschina, Chna Vaccine Scandal, china health