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December 04, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Six Taiwanese Newborns Given Anesthetic Still Alive"

Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (12/02/02); Chiu, Yu-Tzu

Last week, an inexperienced nurse in Taiwan accidentally administered a muscle relaxant to seven newborns, instead of injecting them with the hepatitis B vaccine.  The babies went into comas and one died; however, doctors say that five of the other six babies can now breathe without respirators and some are able to absorb breast milk.  Peiching Hospital Director Mu-chan Hsu noted that the nurse failed to double-check the drug before administering it to the infants, and he suggested that the mix-up may have been caused by the misplacement of anesthetics in the same freezer as the vaccines.  In the wake of the accident, the Taipei County Government has ended its contract to supply vaccines to the hospital and has sent its own medical team to provide immunizations to patients at the facility.

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