According to the officials, forty-four pupils were admitted into a hospital after they were given Hepatitis B vaccine in China's Guangdong province.

Wu Junqiu, head of the disease prevention and control centre stated that 84 pupils were given the vaccine at a primary school in Jieyang city on Thursday.

He added that 44 developed symptoms of a reaction, such as vomiting, bellyaches and lightheadedness.

Whilst the pharynges of five pupils were still swollen, 39 had got better and had slight stomach aches only.

Over 90,000 dosages of the Hepatitis vaccine had been administrated, but no other cases of abnormal reaction have been reported thus far, he said.

But, authorities have blocked further use of the remaining vaccine, whose expiry date was Sep 1, 2010, and which was made in Shenzhen city in Guangzhou province. (With Inputs from Agencies)