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A total of 6,620 people in Lanzhou, Gansu province, have been infected with a bacterium that could cause Mediterranean fever after an accident at a vaccine factory last year, the city government said on Thursday.
Eight members of the factory’s staff, including its director, have been held accountable and punished, including warnings from the Party or dismissal from their posts.
The infections were caused by the use of expired disinfectant at a Chinese animal husbandry industry factory in Lanzhou during the production of animal vaccines between July 24 and August 20 last year, authorities said. city.
This caused the brucella bacteria to enter the exhaust gases emitted by the factory, infecting students and professors at the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and people in other nearby locations.
The factory closed the workshop that produces vaccines for brucellosis, also known as Mediterranean fever, on Dec. 7, taking it down last month.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the provincial CDC have conducted sampling tests in nearby areas and no brucella bacteria were detected, the city government said.
City authorities have tested 55,725 people, of which 6,620 tested positive for the bacteria.
[[nid:502208]]The brucella bacteria, which are spread by contact with infected livestock, including cattle and sheep, or by ingesting unpasteurized dairy products, can cause brucellosis.
The city has provided free treatment to everyone who tested positive and showed symptoms, and 126 patients received treatment at 11 hospitals in Lanzhou, the city’s health commission said.
China’s animal husbandry industry has allocated 10 million yuan (Singaporean $ 2 million) to pay for diagnosis and treatment and to compensate affected people, and has pledged to increase funds for compensation, said the Lanzhou Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Cui Buyun, an infectious disease researcher at the China CDC, previously said that patients with brucellosis may have symptoms such as fever, joint pain and sweating, but the disease is sensitive to antibiotics and rarely causes death or other serious consequences. .
