Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said on Saturday that more than 1,600 vials of unregistered vaccines had been seized during raids on 14 premises.

However, none of the vials contained vaccines that were touted by a health centre on social media in July as capable of preventing the Wilms' tumor 1 (WT1) and other cancers.

Three people who were in charge of the premises were arrested during the joint operation by the police and the Department of Health, with Lo saying one of them was a doctor.

The operation came amid growing concern that several health centres were claiming to offer a vaccine for the WTI cancer that affects children's kidneys, leading to the Department of Health to stress there is no such pharmaceutical product registered in Hong Kong, on the mainland or overseas.

Lo warned that administering unregistered vaccines poses severe health risks.

"Although these vials may not be WT1-related, they could contain vitamins or so-called anti-ageing products," he said.

"However, when injected, if it isn't registered it is extremely dangerous because it goes directly into the body; it's not taken orally, but administered directly into the bloodstream," he told an RTHK radio programme.

"There have been previous instances where using these so-called health products caused bacteria to enter the bloodstream because they were contaminated."

Lo added that, to date, there have been no reports of people having received the so-called WT1 vaccine.




Edited by Azam Khan