China more than triples number of children hospitalised over milk
2008-10-09

Nations China States Shanxi Shandong Hebei Neimenggu Liaoning Category Regions Event 2008 China Milk Scandal Source (AFP)

China published Thursday a new number of children hospitalised after drinking tainted milk, more than tripling the official figure to nearly 47,000.

At the moment, 10,666 children remain in hospital for poisoning with the toxic chemical melamine, while another 36,144 were previously hospitalised but have since been allowed to go home, the health ministry said.

This makes for a total of 46,810 children who have been hospitalised for kidney problems caused by melamine, up from 14,471 according to the previous data from the health ministry on September 21.

In addition to the children hospitalised, thousands of others have received outpatient care.

However, a health ministry spokeswoman told AFP on Thursday she did not have updated figures for the number of outpatients.

According to the September 21 data, there were 39,965 outpatients. When added to the number who had been hospitalised, the total figure for sickened children late last month reached 54,436.

Health ministry officials said this week they had updated figures for the total number of children affected by drinking tainted milk powder, but they refused to make the figure public.

China's government announced Thursday 300 million yuan (43.9 million dollars) in subsidies for the nation's beleaguered dairy farmers who are suffering through a tainted milk scandal.

"In order to stabilise the breeding of dairy cows and advance the development of the dairy industry, the finance and agricultural ministries have set up a provisional subsidy programme for farmers in hard hit areas," the government said.

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

The 300 million yuan in funds would be handed down from central finance departments for local governments to distribute according to conditions on the farms, it added.