Tragic costs of delay

Fuyang has shocked the country again. Nineteen children have died there since last month before the city recently announced an outbreak of a lethal intestinal virus.

About four years ago, the city in Anhui province startled the nation with a scandal relating to fake and inferior-quality milk powder that affected more than 170 infants and killed at least a dozen of them.

The memory of the last tragedy only adds to the bitterness of the new one.