China launched nationwide school inspections when parents found the institutions were, unbeknownst to them, vaccinating their kids to boost health and attendance, a new report revealed Friday.
Local education and healthcare authorities are conducting the campaign through April 10, inspecting kindergartens, primary schools and high schools for illegal medical treatment. No deaths have been reported, but kindergartens are a particular concern. At least six kindergartens in three provinces are accused of giving children moroxydine, a drug that fights the flu virus, without informing their parents, according to China Daily.
More than 1,000 kindergarteners received the drug, some experiencing abdominal pain, itchiness and other symptoms as a result, state media say.
Police have detained at least 10 people responsible for buying and administering the prescription drug to healthy students without the parents' permission.
China schools make a profit based on attendance, and so in an effort to keep kids in school and avoid refunding parents for their child's absence, they administer vaccines to keep kids healthy. Some schools have been doing it for years, and parents are eager for retribution.
"We only have one child, and you fed them with a banned drug," read one banner carried by protesters in photographs on the microblogging Chinese website Sina Weibo, Reuters reported. Parents in the central province of Hubei and the northwestern province of Shaanxi have taken to the streets to protest.
The news comes in the wake of an incident Wednesday at a private kindergarten in Yunnan province, the China Daily said in a separate report, in which two children died from rat poison. It is not yet clear whether the incident was deliberate or accidental.
To exacerbate the situation, parents are even more concerned after the food and drug safety issue in 2008, when at least six children died and thousands became ill from milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, setting in motion parents' dwindling faith in the school system.
