Macau, China, 07 Oct – Macau’s school authorities said that no cases of kidney infection were found in over 11,000 children from day care centres and primary schools in Macau that were tested after drinking milk products that have since been removed from the market.
Up until 6 October, urine tests were performed on 11,465 students that took part in the Macau Department of Education’s milk programme for the 2007/2008 school year. Kidney stones were preliminarily ruled out for all the students tested, according to a statement released Monday by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau.
The statement also said that examinations on the remaining students from private schools will be finished soon.
Meanwhile, Macau’s Health Bureau and its Economic Services announced that up to 3 October, 182 samples of milk products on sale in Macau were gathered and analysed and of this amount, 20 samples contained melamine, some of which were milk products from
Yinlu, Taisun and Nestle.
Some of the product samples the Health Bureau and Economic Services collected from the market include baby formula, powdered milk, milk and milk products, coffee products, frozen desserts, milk desserts and others.
Ever since products contaminated with melamine in Macau was confirmed, there was one case of kidney stones in a 16 month-old baby, who had drunk Nestle Gold branded powdered milk.
The milk that was drunk by the child was produced in the Chinese province of Heilongjiang and was identified in the Hong Kong press as containing melamine.
Melamine is the same chemical detected in powdered milk brands manufactured in mainland China, such as Yili, Mengniu and Guangming, that has so far poisoned thousands of babies since May.
The Health Bureau launched last month a campaign of examinations to check the health status of children that were included in the Macau Department of Education’s milk programme for the 2007/2008 school year and said the tests will be extended to all primary schools and day care centres, representing around 11,000 children.
(MacauNews)
