The number of Chinese infants sick in hospital after drinking tainted milk formula has leapt to nearly 13Â 000, and Premier Wen Jiabao told alarmed parents that companies responsible will face harsh punishment.
The Health Ministry said the number of children ill from milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine had risen from a previously announced total of 6Â 244 — which included many who had left hospital — to 12Â 892.
Over 80% of the sick were aged under two.
The big jump was announced late on Sunday, another escalation in China’s spreading milk scandal that has tarnished the ”made in China” brand after last year’s scandals over everything from the safety of toothpaste and drugs to pet food and toys.
Wen visited hospitals in the national capital in a bid to reassure an anxious public.
”We must make the physical health of the public a priority,” he told parents and staff, according to Xinhua news agency.
”The most crucial point is that after a clean-up there can be no problems at all with newly produced milk products. If there are fresh problems, they must be even more sternly punished under the law.”
China’s food quality watchdog has said it found melamine in nearly 10% of milk and drinking yoghurt samples from three major dairy companies: Mengniu Dairy, the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, and the Bright group.
But the Health Ministry said no cases of illness have been founded related to liquid milk.
Nitrogen-rich melamine can be added to watered-down milk to get past quality inspections, which check for nitrogen to measure protein levels.
Panicked parents
Panicked parents have crowded China’s hospitals and demanded redress since officials and the Sanlu Group, the country’s biggest maker of infant milk powder, said two weeks ago that babies developed kidney stones and other complications after drinking the tainted milk.
Sanlu failed to publicly disclose the problem for at least a month, throughout August when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, officials have said.
The government has promised free treatment for stricken children, but some parents said they worried about long-term complications and costs.
”The recovery period could be long,” said Li Lingna, waiting in a Beijing hospital to determine whether her two-year old boy’s kidney problems were related to his milk powder.
”We’re worried about what this will do to his resistance, with winter and colds coming on. So many problems lie ahead.”
In the wake of the scandal, other countries and regions have clamped down on China’s milk products. Markets that that have banned or recalled these products include Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Even White Rabbit Creamy Candy, a popular Chinese brand of milk sweet, has been contaminated with melamine, Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority warned on Sunday.
Over the weekend a three-year-old Hong Kong girl was found to have a kidney stone after drinking a milk product tainted by melamine, making her the territory’s first suspected victim of the scandal.
Premier Wen said that dairy products that passed safety tests would be labelled so that consumers can ”be at ease”.
But the complications from the country’s lastest food safety crisis are likely to endure.
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture said despairing farmers were dumping milk and killing cattle after companies stopped buying their supplies, according to Xinhua. The ministry promised subsidies to help struggling milk farmers. – Reuters