Published 24 September 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1802
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1802

News

China’s tainted infant formula sickens nearly 13 000 babies

¹ Hong Kong

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The number of children admitted to hospital in China after drinking infant formula tainted with melamine has risen to 12 892, with 104 seriously ill. Across the country 39 965 children have already been treated and discharged, China’s Ministry of Health has said.

The incident, which has so far claimed the lives of four children, has led to the resignation of Li Changjang, head of China’s quality watchdog organisation, say reports from the state news agency.

A 4 year old girl in Hong Kong became the first known victim outside mainland China when she was discovered on 19 September to have kidney stones as a result of drinking tainted milk.

The World Health Organization, which was informed of the problem only on 11 September, has criticised China’s internal communication and food safety systems. "Evidently there is a problem with internal communications, as it seems that some people already knew about . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Hard, G. C., Flake, G. P., Sills, R. C. (2009). Re-evaluation of Kidney Histopathology from 13-Week Toxicity and Two-Year Carcinogenicity Studies of Melamine in the F344 Rat: Morphologic Evidence of Retrograde Nephropathy. Vet Pathol 46: 1248-1257 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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