Autopsy crucial in discovering cause of Jiangsu girl's death

An autopsy will be carried out to help determine the reason behind the death of a 3-year-old girl from Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, who died after receiving a rabies vaccine, the local government was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

The girl, surnamed Zhang, was scratched by the pet dog of her classmate on April 26. After about 23 hours, she received a freeze-dried rabies vaccine at a local hospital. But early April 28, the girl suffered a febrile convulsion and was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment. She died later that day.

The case has attracted attention from netizens who wondered whether the death could be caused by disqualified vaccines.

According to The Paper, a preliminary investigation by local health authorities showed no recipients had adverse reactions after getting vaccines from the same batch between March 11 and April 30.

The investigation also showed the hospital where she was vaccinated and the doctor involved are qualified, the vaccine used was within its validity period and there is no problem found in its cold-chain transportation. As required by the girl's family, the hospital has kept a vaccine of the same batch as a sample to check.

The local health commission has organized an expert panel to review the entire process of diagnosis, and the panel agreed the cause of the death needs to be determined by autopsy. The autopsy result is expected to be delivered within 45 to 60 working days.