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PRC tally of children hospitalized over milk triples

China said yesterday it understood the global concern over its food exports, as the official tally of children hospitalized after drinking tainted milk more than tripled to nearly 47,000.

Beijing issued nearly US$44 million in subsidies for its beleaguered dairy farmers who have been hit hard by the scandal as the nation weans itself off milk products.

Nearly 11,000 children remain in hospital for poisoning from drinking milk products laced with the toxic chemical melamine, while around 36,000 were previously hospitalized but have since been allowed to go home, the health ministry said.

This makes for a total of 46,810 children who have been hospitalized for kidney problems caused by the melamine, up from the 14,471 the ministry’s data showed on Sept. 21.

Ministry officials said this week they had updated figures for the total number of children — both inpatient and outpatient — affected by drinking tainted milk powder but they refused to make the figure public.

Officials continued efforts to contain the scandal as Brazil announced this week it was banning the import of Chinese food products after a series of nations took similar measures.

“We have noted that due to this [milk] incident, some countries, including Brazil, have taken measures and we understand this,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) told journalists.

“It is the responsibility of all countries of the world to safeguard the safety and health of their peoples but we should remain realistic and sober,” Qin said.

Qin insisted China was making every effort to clean up its dairy industry, inspect all food exports and immediately report to its trading partners any tainted exports discovered in the process.

At least four children have died after melamine was added to a range of dairy products, including infant milk formula, falsely making the goods appear to contain higher levels of protein.

Although the tainted milk was discovered as early as this March, industry and government cover-ups kept the scandal out of the state media until early last month.

Meanwhile, the government announced yesterday 300 million yuan (US$43.9 million) in subsidies for the nation’s beleaguered dairy farmers who have been hit hard by the scandal.

Farmers in China’s main dairy regions of Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi and Shandong provinces would be the main beneficiaries of the program, a joint statement issued by the finance and agricultural ministries said.

The funds would be handed down from central finance departments for local governments to distribute according to conditions on the farms, the statement said.
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