A 1-month-old Fujian Province boy died on Saturday with blood pouring out of his nose after receiving a hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine, the Straits News reported Thursday.
Xiaohao (pseudonym) was found lying in his cot with blood on his face and bedsheet after receiving the vaccine in Chengxiang District Hospital, Putian on Friday.
He was then taken to the city's First Hospital where doctors said he had been dead for over 2 hours.
Chengxiang District Hospital sealed the 743 vaccines left from the batch used on Xiaohao, however 1897 of them have been used already.
According to his father, surnamed Yang, Xiaohao was previously healthy.
Yang claims that the hospital incorrectly weighed his son and subsequently gave him an overdose, though the Straits News report did not explain why he believes this.
A local official told media that the vaccine Xiaohao was given was produced by Shenzhen's Taikang Pharmaceutical Company which produces most of the HBV vaccines used in Putian and claimed no similar cases has ever occurred.
His body will receive a postmortem examination and the results will be investigated by experts to see whether a direct link between his death and the vaccine can be detected.
Vaccine scandals last year sparked a confidence crisis in China.
Police in East China's Shandong Province revealed in 2016 that they had busted a gang that sold "problematic vaccines" worth over 570 million yuan ($88 million) nationwide since 2011. The vaccines were poorly refrigerated and sold to hospitals through illicit channels, meaning many of them were ineffective and could have harmed patients.
