Three health officers held responsible for 145 babies receiving expired oral polio vaccine were suspended Wednesday in Jinhu county of East China's Jiangsu province, according to the county's health commission. From Dec 11 to Monday, 145 babies were given the expired vaccine at a local health center in the county's Licheng township, the commission confirmed. The three officers are Liu Zhibing, deputy director of the health center, Yang Wanqin, deputy director of the county's center for disease control and prevention, and Han Wei, deputy section chief of one of the departments under the center for disease control and prevention. Renowned medical experts in Jiangsu province will be invited to the county to give the children medical examinations on Thursday, Zhou Guangfeng, head of the county's publicity department, was quoted by Thepaper.cn as saying. The government guarantees that any medical problems found during the examinations will be treated, he said. Jinhu County Hospital Group will take responsibility to treat the problems. A remediation plan to revaccinate the children will be made immediately. The county government has initiated a major incident and emergency response team to investigate the expired vaccine. Local discipline inspection and supervisory committees also have participated in the investigation. The inoculations with expired live attenuated polio vaccine was accidentally found by a father who works in a local hospital on Monday. The father, who took his 4-year-old son to the center to take the vaccine pills, checked online with the vaccine batch number, 201612158, printed on the boy's vaccination record book and found the batch expired on Dec 11. The county has scrutinized all local health centers to seal up the expired vaccine pills, drugs and medical consumables, according to a notice published by the local publicity department. Two more vaccination centers have been established downtown for parents' convenience. rubber bracelets canadawristbands for eventsrubber band bracelets
Volunteers at Food Angel's Sham Shui Po kitchen trim edible surplus vegetables that would otherwise have been dumped in landfills. EDMOND TANG/CHINA DAILY Action taken in city to help seniors and children Three years ago, a woman in Hong Kong surnamed Lo was malnourished and could not afford to buy food. She lives alone in a 5-square-meter closet, known as a subdivided flat, in Sham Shui Po, one of the oldest and poorest neighborhoods in the special administrative region. Before Lo, 77, learned about Food Angel-a meals program-three years ago, she was as thin as a rake. When she could, she tried to supplement her starvation diet by lining up for free food packs handed out by a few NGOs and some restaurants. At other times she cooked simple meals such as salted fish and vegetables for herself in her tiny apartment. Today, Lo receives two free, nutritious meals every day at Food Angel's community center in Sham Shui Po. On the day she was interviewed, braised pig trotters were on the lunch menu. A contented Lo said, I have gained weight since I began having the meals here. The meals have also helped ease her financial burden. The HK$3,500($446) monthly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance payment she receives from the Hong Kong government does not go very far. More than half-HK$1,900-goes for rent and utility bills, and the rest is spent on basic essentials, including medications and transportation. Lo's eyesight is poor, as she has cataracts. With two free meals a day, she is able to save a small amount of money to see a doctor. Occasionally she can afford to buy clothes. Founded in 2011, Food Angel, a program run by the Bo Charity Foundation, turns edible surplus food from supermarkets, restaurants and hotel kitchens into meals. The meals, which are balanced for nutritional value, go to grassroots elderly people and other low-income households in the city Monday through Friday. In the past seven years, Food Angel has prepared more than 6 million hot meals and food packages for people in need. Julian Chow Chung-man, Food Angel's senior manager (community partner engagement) said the group rescues about 4,000 kilograms of surplus food a day. Most of it is packed into recoverable boxes and delivered to social welfare organizations, homes for the aged and schools, while a small number of elderly people have their meals at our community center, he said. Daily life in Hong Kong produces mountains of edible surplus food, most of which is dumped into landfills as waste. As an alternative, Food Angel collects and recycles food which would otherwise be destined for these dumps. Most of it comprises fresh vegetables and raw meat, and is donated by some 300 supermarkets, wet markets, restaurants and hotels. After the food is taken to the Food Angel base in Lai Chi Kok, staff members and volunteers trim yellowing leaves off vegetables, then wash and chop the food before it is taken in trucks to two kitchens, where it is transformed into hot meals.
