Chinese health ministry says only six infants died of tainted milk powder

Beijing, Dec.2 : China's Ministry of Health has claimed that only six infants died from consuming melamine-tainted milk powder.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, health ministry experts have looked into 11 infant death cases since September across the country, and had ruled out connection to the tainted milk powder in five cases.

The ministry's web site further goes on to say that four of the six cases occurred in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guizhou and Shaanxi Provinces respectively, while the rest two cases occurred in the northwestern province of Gansu. It did not give any further details.

Meanwhile, 861 infants were still receiving treatment for kidney problems caused by tainted milk powder by last Thursday. The figure dropped by about 200 from the previous week, when the number of hospitalized infants stood at 1,041. All together 294,000 infants were found to have suffered from diseases of urinary systems in the ministry's nationwide screening.

Among them, 154 had been in serious conditions, but were all stable by Monday. A total of 51,900 children had been hospitalized and 51,039 had recovered and left the hospital.

ANI