18 health officials referred to disciplinary court

CAIRO – 5 Aug 2017: The administrative prosecution referred 18 Ministry of Health officials to disciplinary court over their negligence to properly store vaccines. About 155,385 doses of infant vaccines were spoiled over bad storage.

The officials include head of the pharmacists’ medical supply at the health ministry, 13 pharmacists at the vaccination center’s storage unit and four officials responsible for storing vaccines at the ministry, the administrative prosecution’s spokesman said in a statement on Saturday.

The total amount of the spoiled vaccines cost about 443,000 dollars - the sum was part of a grant from Saudi Arabia to the Egyptian Ministry of Health, Mohamed Samir added.

Investigations proved that the vaccines were kept in wet and torn cartons and were stored at high temperature, which allowed black fungus to develop around the vaccine vials, he noted.