China’s leaders and health authorities battled yesterday to contain a growing scandal over widespread contamination of milk supplies as the first sickness from the crisis was reported outside China.
More than 6,200 infants have become sick and four babies have died in China after being fed baby formula laced with a banned industrial chemical, but no illnesses had been reported elsewhere until the Hong Kong government said a three-year-old girl had been diagnosed with a kidney stone after drinking milk containing melamine.
The girl was diagnosed with a kidney stone but was in good condition and has been discharged from the hospital, the government said in a statement late on Saturday.
PHOTO: AP
The girl’s parents took her for a checkup because she had been drinking milk made by Chinese dairy company Yili every day for the past 15 months.
Yili Industrial Group Co is one of 22 companies whose milk and dairy products were recalled after batches of their products were found to contain melamine.
The government has launched high-profile efforts to show it is on top of the crisis, with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) appearing on state-run television over the weekend to demand that public safety be put “at the top of the agenda.”
Since the problem of toxic milk products became public knowledge less than two weeks ago, the crisis has spread to include almost all of China’s biggest dairy companies.
Their products have been pulled from stores around the country, and in other places such as Hong Kong and Macau.
Starbucks stopped offering milk in its 300 outlets in China.
Japan and Singapore have recalled Chinese-made dairy products, and the governments of Malaysia and Brunei announced bans on milk products from China even though neither country currently imports Chinese dairy items.
The concern is because melamine has been found not only in powdered milk — used to make baby formula and other products — but also in liquid milk sold by China’s biggest dairies.
Melamine is used in making plastics and is high in nitrogen, which registers as protein in tests of milk.
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