CHICAGO, Aug 5: Flu vaccine that the US state of Illinois donated to Pakistan never made it to earthquake victims it was intended to help, according to a newspaper report. The Chicago Tribune reported in its Sunday editions that Pakistani health officials crushed and burned the quarter-million doses of vaccine, worth $2.6 million, because the expiry date had passed.

“After all, human beings are equal,” said retired Lt-Gen Farooq Ahmad Khan, who coordinated relief for the Oct 8, 2005, earthquake in Pakistan that killed at least 80,000 people. “They are not guinea pigs.

“And vaccines, if they are not good in one country, they should not be usable in another country.”

Illinois ordered the vaccine from overseas in 2004 during a shortage, but the US government refused to let it into the country. It was refrigerated for months before being destroyed in November 2006, according to documents Pakistani officials released to the newspaper.

The Pakistanis said they did not know the vaccine had expired when they accepted the donation. They dismissed the promises of the European distributor, Ecosse Hospital Products Ltd, that the vaccines had been independently tested and were still effective.

The administration of Governor Rod Blagojevich said the governor’s office did not track the vaccine once it reached Pakistan and that it believed the Pakistanis were happy with the donation.—AP