190 Army trainees accidentally given expired hemorrhagic fever shots

▲ In this file photo released by the defense ministry on Dec. 13, 2021, a service member prepares a COVID-19 vaccine shot at a military facility in Yongin, 40 kilometers south of Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Army-expired vaccine

190 Army trainees accidentally given expired hemorrhagic fever shots

SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Army said Thursday its health authorities had accidentally given 190 trainees expired hemorrhagic fever vaccine shots, with none of them showing any health problems so far.

The new recruits at a base in Gyeonggi Province received the shots on July 21. The expiry date for the doses was July 9.

"In line with the guidelines, we are supposed to check the vaccine expiration date, but we found out that medical personnel mistakenly failed to check the date," an Army official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Citing comments from the state-run Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the official said that the likelihood of the expired shots causing health problems remains low.

The military said it plans to continue to monitor the service members in question and carry out urine, blood and X-ray tests on them Friday.

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