BMJ  2008;336:1095 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39576.549236.DB

News

Israeli health ministry officials face charges relating to faulty baby formula

¹ Jerusalem

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

Nearly five years after an imported baby formula that was lacking in thiamin (vitamin B₁) allegedly caused beriberi in Israeli babies fed solely with the product, eight people, including a senior health ministry physician, have been indicted for causing the deaths by negligence of three infants and severe or potentially severe injury in more than 20 others.

The kosher, soya based powder, prepared solely for Israel by the German company Humana, did not include a thiamin supplement in a new formula it began manufacturing in 2003 (bmj.com, 15 Nov 2003, News Extra doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7424.1128-i).

Although senior officials in the Israeli import company Remedia allegedly knew (according to the indictment) that Humana had decided to stop adding the vitamin, they did nothing about it and did not inform the health ministry. It is also claimed that Remedia continued to use an out of date label for the . . . [Full text of this article]

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