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Sickened Milk Scandal Victims May Top 90,000 in China
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by Terri Potratz | October 9, 2008 at 02:25 pm
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Though the Chinese government has refused to release new figures as to how many children fell ill as a result of the melamine tainted milk scandal, investigation into local media shows that the number may be in the 90,000's - a figure that is nearly double what officials reported on September 21, when they estimated over 50,000 children had been sickened.
The government has not updated figures issued on September 21, when it said that 12,892 infants were in hospital, 104 with serious illness, and close to 40,000 others were affected but did not need major treatment.
But reports from local media across the country compiled by Reuters suggest the number of affected children has risen to nearly 94,000, although most are not in a serious condition.
Since extensive media coverage, especially as the situation escalated and more tests were revealing melamine-tainted products, the number of new sick children has dropped sharply - presumably because parents are being much more cautious about what they're feeding them. Despite this, over 10,000 children still remain hospitalized:
More than 10,000 children remained hospitalized after being sickened in China's tainted milk scandal, eight of whom were in serious condition, officials said.The Health Ministry said in a statement on its Web site Wednesday that 10,666 children were in hospitals after drinking milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, which can lead to kidney stones and possibly life-threatening kidney failure.
Related NowPublic.com Stories:
China Moves To Save Face In The Milk Scandal
China's Dairy Farmers Say They Are Also Victims
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 09:31 on October 11th, 2008
Terri Potratz, I like this story. It's good stuff. Yeah, and they aren't even starting to count the sick kids in other parts of Asia. This is a long term health disaster for those areas.