Hanoi - Parents are flocking to Vietnamese hospitals to have
their children's kidneys checked, worried they may have consumed
toxic melamine from Chinese milk products, health experts said
Friday.
'We are checking the kidneys of 40 to 50 out of the 100 infants we
see each day,' said Ngo Thanh Loan, a nurse in the ultrasound
department of the National Pediatric Hospital in Hanoi. Loan said
normally only 10 to 20 per cent of children would have their kidneys
checked.
Children's Hospital No 1 in Ho Chi Minh City performed checkups
on more than 6,000 infants last week, 1,000 more than usual,
according to local media.
Vietnam's National Hygiene and Food Safety Department announced
Thursday it had found 18 milk products containing melamine being sold
in Vietnam. Most were imported from China, but others came from
Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Vietnamese media in recent days have reported that parents are
discouraging their children from drinking imported milk, turning
instead to local fresh milk or soy milk.
Melamine, an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of
plastic, can cause kidney stones and other complications,
particularly in infants.
In recent weeks Chinese authorities have revealed that dairy
farmers in China have illegally used the chemical on a massive scale
to increase the nitrogen content in their milk, thus increasing its
apparent protein content and allowing it to pass quality control
tests at distribution centres.
The revelations have led a number of countries to ban the import
of Chinese dairy products.
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