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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The spokesperson of Tuen Mun Hospital (TMH) made the following announcement today (September 28) on an incident of vaccine cold storage:
At around 2pm on September 25, a staff of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of TMH found that the temperature display of a refrigerator in a postnatal ward storing BCG and HBV vaccines was at 19 degrees Celsius, which was higher than the recommended range of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. Ward staff reviewed the temperature record of the refrigerator immediately and found that the temperature started to rise at around 8am in the morning. It was also found that on the night of September 23, the temperature of the refrigerator was raised to 15 degrees Celsius and lasted for three hours.
According to the ward record, between the afternoons of September 23 to 25, there were 40 infants receiving the BCG and HBV vaccines in that refrigerator. According to the expert opinions from microbiologists and pharmaceutical firms, the efficacy of these vaccines which had been stored under the temperature ranging from 2 to 25 degrees Celsius would not be affected nor causing any harm to the receivers.
The TMH has contacted most of the parents of the infants affected to explain about the incident. For those concerned parents, they are welcome to call 2468 6197 if they had further enquiries.
The TMH is very concerned about the incident and had reported to the Hospital Authority Head Office (HAHO) via the Advance Incident Reporting System. The TMH expresses apology to those affected and will further investigate into the incident to identify the root cause and to implement remedial measures to prevent recurrence of similar incident.
Ends/Sunday, September 28, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:25
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