Fake vaccines, false data plague China's health system

July 30 (UPI) -- Vaccine fraud plagues disease control centers in China and government bureaus have in some cases been filling syringes with water and selling them as rabies shots.

Fake inoculations are in the spotlight in the world's second-largest economy, following revelations Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology falsified data on the effectiveness of rabies vaccines, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

Chinese disease control centers began to sometimes use syringes filled with water to make up for shortages, owing to a lack of funds.

"Government funds are allocated to the local health bureau, but the bureau only gives a very small amount of money to my station," said one head of a disease control center who spoke to the Post.

The source added, "everyone inside the loop knows" about the questionable quality of publicly available vaccines.

Malaria prevention is completely unavailable at the center, and "many medicines are stored in our station too long and they pass their expiry date."

"We dare not openly report malaria cases because once the number is known by others, we will surely be punished."

The report comes a week after Changsheng Bio-tech was found to have forged production data and inspection records.

Xinhua reported Sunday a total of 18 suspects have been arrested in Jilin Province in connection to the case.

Changsheng "illegally produced" rabies vaccines for human use, according to the report.