CHINA:IN CHINA'S worst health scare in years, 53,000 small children have been made sick by contaminated milk and thousands of worried families are pouring into hospitals nationwide for check-ups, while the government has stepped up a wide-ranging damage limitation exercise.
There were traffic jams near hospitals and long lines of anxious parents near the testing centres. Of the 53,000 made sick, 12,892 have had to stay in hospital; 80 per cent of them were two-years-old or younger.
Four children are dead from consuming milk products contaminated with a toxic chemical, melamine, and there is growing anger nationwide at the scandal. Melamine is used to tan leather and manufacture plastics.
Now the director of China's quality control watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, Li Changjiang, has resigned.
It is the worst health scare to hit China in recent years. Increasingly, people are wondering why the official response is always so slow, whether it's bird flu, lead paint in toys, poisoned noodles or other gaping lapses of food safety.
Premier Wen Jiabao was pictured yesterday comforting anxious parents, but his presence does not mask China's poor record on reporting health scares.
When the respiratory illness Sars broke in 2003, the Chinese government won plaudits for dealing with it, but only after weeks of cover-up. The impact of bird flu was also covered up, while it is only recently that Chinese media has been allowed to report on disasters such as mine explosions.
The government is worried about the political fallout.
There are whisperings that officials knew melamine was being used in milk products three years ago and this batch emerged before the Olympics, with allegations that company chiefs kept it quiet so as not to spoil the Olympic party.
Most of the victims had consumed products made by China's biggest dairy, the Sanlu Group in Shijiazhuang.
"The hospitalised children basically consumed Sanlu brand infant milk powder. No cases have been found from ingesting liquid milk," the health ministry said.
Hong Kong reported its first illness over the weekend - a three-year-old girl who developed kidney stones after drinking milk from China, the first case outside the mainland.
Health authorities in Hong Kong also said they had discovered melamine in Chinese-sourced Nestlé milk, which if confirmed would be the first foreign brand contaminated by the chemical.
One Beijing woman, Lang Jie says she has brought her 23- month-old baby Dongdong to hospital for the second time.
"When me and my husband heard that Shien milk is one of the 22 problem milk companies, we were very worried and panicked," said Lang. "We felt terrible. Those responsible people are horrible. They are just innocent babies. How can they do this to babies?
"I hope in future our country can do more to assure food safety. Me and my husband have to monitor the news."
The government has promised to deal harshly with those responsible for diluting the milk with the banned chemical melamine.