This comes two days after Health Minister Chen Zhu warned medical institutions across China carrying out the vaccination not to add any charge under any excuse to the inoculation, which is free and voluntary, the commission said in a notice.

The country initiated the inoculation program in late September and so far at least 5 million people have been vaccinated.

Special teams will inspect vaccination sites, including schools and clinics, the notice said.

The commission didn’t say what punishment would be imposed.

Online criticism has accused some clinics of charging for vaccinations.

While dismissing the accusation on Monday, the Ministry of Health did concede that some clinics asked H1N1 vaccination recipients to also receive other paid vaccines.

Charging irregularities for H1N1 vaccinations exist in other forms.

In Ningxia, home to China’s largest community of the Hui Muslim minority group, more than 2,000 Muslim pilgrims were vaccinated against H1N1, Xinhua News Agency reported in late last month.

Each person paid 5 yuan (73 cents) to cover “equipment costs”, the report said, citing Ma Shouyu, head of religious affairs of Haiyuan, a county in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

The free H1N1 vaccination is funded by local governments, so poor areas are more likely to have such irregularities, said industry insiders.

In response, the central government has vowed to give poor western regions financial assistance to ensure vulnerable people are vaccinated for free.

As experts estimate that some 390 million people nationwide are at high risk of the potentially lethal pandemic while only 65 million might be vaccinated by the end of year, some complained about the shortage and unfair distribution which favors government officials.

Currently, the distribution plan for the limited vaccines is decided by local health authorities as the condition varies by region.

The Chinese mainland reported 51,490 H1N1 cases as of yesterday, including eight deaths.

China saw a sudden surge of flu cases since last month and experts have said that the pandemic will not wane until March.

Late last month, the United States declared H1N1 a national emergency while South Korea on Tuesday declared red alert, the highest level, against the pandemic.

The anti-malaria project, which cost about 3 million U.S. dollars, will be funded by the Sirus Corporation of Japan and the field work is to be carried out by regional health authorities, the sources said.

Myanmar is striving to cut the number of deaths caused by malaria by half in the year 2010 in the wake of that about 700,000people in the country are infected with the disease yearly.

To realize the target, the health authorities are calling for preventive measures against the fatal disease with the participation of the entire people and also with a high level of health awareness.

The preventive measures are outlined as imparting knowledge to the people, using mosquito nets treated with insecticide, cultivating the habit of visiting hospitals and receiving proper treatment.

In February 2007, the Japanese government had extended similar grant aid of 178,822 U.S. dollars to Myanmar to help fight malaria in the country’s Bago division covering the region’s eastern and western parts, earlier official report said.

Malaria is among the three diseases of national concern which Myanmar has been encountering. The other two are HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB).

Myanmar treats the three diseases as priority with the main objectives of reducing the morbidity and mortality in a bid to become no longer a public problem and meet the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

In its prevention efforts against malaria, the Myanmar government has distributed 50,000 long lasting insecticidal nets annually since 2000 to hardly accessible areas of national races with up to 400,000 existing bed nets also impregnated with insecticide annually since then.

“Maybe this person could stand a little help. Because that was at a time in my life when I needed help.
“I had a problem, and there might be many other athletes out there that test positive for recreational drugs that have a problem. So I would ask for some compassion,” added he.
In his book “Open”, which goes on sale on Monday, the eight-time Grand Slam champion says he used crystal meth in 1997 and failed a drug test, a result he says was thrown out after he lied by saying he unwittingly took the substance.
But Agassi told “60 Minutes” he has no regrets about his disclosures.