Mainland Chinese queue up for Hong Kong vaccine
As new scandal bites, one clinic received more than 30,000 calls in a day from worried parents
As China’s healthcare system struggles to regain the public’s trust and its own credibility amidst another vaccine scandal, increasing numbers of patients are heading across the border to Hong Kong to inoculate their children as part of a trend that echoes the country’s last major scandal.
In 2016, when China was in the grip of fear after millions of doses of compromised vaccine were given to children, medical tourism rates soared by a massive 500 percent. Now facing a similar public health crisis, mainland Chinese have been inundating Hong Kong clinics after it was revealed that two Chinese manufacturers had been selling ineffective diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus vaccines.
According to South China Morning Post, phones at health centres have been ringing off the hook with calls from anxious parents keen to inoculate their children with internationally approved brands of vaccines stocked in Hong Kong. One clinic, WaiKong Health Management Services, said it received more than 30,000 calls from China in a day.
After the 2016 crisis, Hong Kong imposed a cap on public health clinics, limiting vaccinations to non-local children to a maximum of 120 per month. Despite the quota, desperate parents in China still try their luck and venture across the border.
“I feel a bit ashamed about crossing the border to snap up a vaccine, and I totally understand if Hong Kong people resent us for doing it, but it’s just what I’ve got to do as a mother,” a Shenzhen resident told the paper.
This story was originally published in the Global Health and Travel issue of October-November 2018.
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