Health Care Article

Melamine is an organic compound, a base with chemical formula C3H6N6. It is has a molecular mass of just over 126, forms a white, crystalline powder, and is only slightly soluble in water.

It is used as a fi re retardant additive in polymer resins because its high nitrogen content is released as flame-stifling nitrogen gas when the compound is burned or charred. Indeed, it is this high nitrogen level - 66% nitrogen by mass - in melamine that gives it the analytical characteristics of protein molecules.

Melamine can also be described as a trimer of cyanamide, three cyanamide units joined in a ring.
It is a rather harmful compound. Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage.

Previously, melamine was found in exported pet food last year and blamed for killing thousands of cats and dogs in the US. Bloomberg also reports that analysis of samples of ice cream produced by Yili
have also revealed the presence of melamine.

BEIJING: China said on Wednesday a third infant had died from drinking milk contaminated with toxic melamine and 6,244 infants were sick as four officials were sacked amid a widening scandal.The number of infants diagnosed with “acute kidney failure” had risen to 158, Health Minister Chen Zhu told a news conference carried live on state television.

Four city officials and a company boss have been sacked in the health scare which has seen thousands of parents in southern China flood into Hong Kong to buy foreign-made milk powder.

China has been beset by scandals about toxic and unsafe food and other products in recent years. In 2004, at least 13 babies died after drinking fake milk powder that had no nutritional value.

Facing alarm at the latest food safety scandal, the government sacked four officials in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province in north China and base of the Sanlu Group, the dairy company first linked to the toxic milk.

The sackings included the vice mayor in charge of agriculture, Zhang Fawang, and the director of the city’s food and drug watchdog, Zhang Yi, as well as chief officials for animal husbandry and quality inspection. (more…)

BEIJING (Sept 16, 2008): The number of Chinese infants found threatened by toxic milk powder is likely to rise as the search for victims spreads, state media reported yesterday, as the government faced growing public anger over the safety crisis.More than 1,200 children have been diagnosed with kidney illness after drinking adulterated milk powder produced by the Sanlu Group.

Two infants have died and more than 50 are in a serious condition from kidney stones caused by a banned chemical, melamine, added to raw milk before processing in an apparent bid to fool inspectors.

“Their number could rise as the search for more infants fed Sanlu milk food spreads across the country’s rural areas,” the China Daily reported. “…The number could rise sharply in coming days as more parents take their children for medical check-ups,” it added, citing Health Minister Chen Zhu.

Melamine is rich in nitrogen, an element often used to measure protein, and so can be used to disguise diluted milk.

China is the world’s second biggest market for baby milk powder, and Sanlu has been the top-selling company in the sector for 15 years, with 18.3% of sales in 2007.

Sanlu dominates in poorer rural areas, where farmer and migrant workers often find milk powder is easier than breast-feeding, and sometimes believe it is also healthier.

The central government has called the poisonings a “Level 1″ food safety incident and formed an emergency team to grapple with the fall-out, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

But public anger has grown over claims the company and officials failed to act sooner.
Sanlu, 43% owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, last week halted production after investigators announced they had found the problem.

Local Chinese officials acted last week only after the New Zealand government contacted Beijing, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday. But according to Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier, Sanlu started its own recall from suppliers from Aug 2.

But last year, Sanlu was lauded by a Chinese state television programme, “Weekly Consumer Report”, as a model of good quality.

In past days, Chinese internet sites have filled with bitter criticisms claiming the broadcaster was more interested in boosting companies than protecting consumers.

“Weekly Consumer Report changes from an attacker of fake and sub-standard products into their protector,” said one. - Reuters

The AIDS virus is especially hard to fight because few people develop antibodies to neutralize it, but U.S. researchers said on Thursday they have found an immunity gene that may offer a new way to fight back.They said the gene Apobec3 helps mice develop antibodies against an HIV-like virus, and they think the same gene in humans could lead to a potent vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV.

“This gene is central to HIV biology,” Dr. Warner Greene of the Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a telephone interview.

So far, efforts to make a vaccine against HIV have failed. (more…)