Consumers, medical practitioners and pharmacy operators should call the Pharmaceutical Service hotline 2572 2068 if they are approached by people offering unregistered drugs of unknown source.

The Department of Health says a trading company in Central supplied 2,700 doses of unregistered flu vaccines to group medical practices and private clinics in November.

Of these, 1,290 doses were seized by the department, 410 were claimed to have been discarded by one of the group medical practices concerned, while the whereabouts of another 170 has yet to be identified. More than 800 doses may have been administered to the public.

So far 813 people believed to have been injected with the vaccines in question have been contacted. Only 39 of them reported minor reactions like low fever, or redness and swelling at the injection site.

The department reiterated that products of unknown source and which have not been registered according to the Pharmacy & Poisons Ordinance are potentially harmful in that their safety, efficacy and quality cannot be ascertained.

Possession and supply of unregistered pharmaceutical products is an offence liable to a $100,000 fine and two years jail.