China milk powder scare spreads

Published: 8:40PM Thursday September 11, 2008 Source: Reuters

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A health scare in China involving babies developing kidney stones after drinking possibly fake milk formula has spread across the country, state media said.
   
One baby had died from kidney stones in north-west Gansu province, Xinhua quoted health officials as saying, but it was not clear if there was any link to milk powder in that case.
   
The health scare has revived memories of a grim scandal involving fake milk powder that killed at least 13 babies in eastern China in 2004.
   
An unknown number of infants in at least seven provinces and regions were suffering from kidney stones after drinking milk formula marked Sanlu, Xinhua news agency said, citing local media reports.
   
Xinhua on Wednesday quoted doctors at a hospital in Gansu as saying that "fake milk powder" from one brand could have been responsible for kidney stones developing in 14 patients, all infants under 11 months.
   
Cases of babies developing kidney stones had emerged in three other hospitals in Gansu and also in Jiangsu, Shandong, Hunan, Anhui, Ningxia and Shaanxi provinces, Xinhua said.
   
Health officials in Gansu were investigating, Xinhua said.
   
Dairy company Sanlu Group said that the products may be fake and that it had sent people to Gansu to conduct its own investigation, Xinhua said, quoting a company spokesman surnamed Zhang.
   
Parents of the affected babies, mostly from remote and poor rural areas, had bought the milk powder at much cheaper prices than usual, Xinhua said.
   
Kidney stones are small, solid masses that form when salts or minerals normally found in urine crystallise inside the kidney.
   
If they become large enough, they can move out of the kidney, cause infection and lead to permanent kidney damage.
   
In 2004, at least 13 babies in eastern Anhui province died after drinking fake milk powder that investigators later found had no nutritional value, a scandal that rocked the country and triggered widespread investigations into food and health safety.

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