Herbal drug pulled after death of newborn

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-21 08:46

The Ministry of Health on Sunday ordered hospitals across the country to stop using a herbal remedy suspected of causing the death of a newborn baby and having "adverse effects" on three other infants.

A 9-day-old baby died on Oct 11 at the Zhidan County Hospital in the city of Yan'an, Shaanxi province, after being injected with yinzhihuang, an extract of herbs, including gardenia and honeysuckle, used to treat liver disease and infantile jaundice.

A spokesperson for the health ministry said during a teleconference that three other infants at the hospital had suffered "adverse effects" after receiving the injection, but did not specify any particular symptoms.

Taihang Pharmaceutical, the Shanxi-based producer of the drug, posted a notice on its website Monday saying it had launched a recall of a batch of products on Thursday, the day it was informed of the infant's death.

The company said it had submitted a report on Friday to all hospitals and drug stores, and to the Shanxi provincial drug safety watchdog.

It said the suspect batch of the drug was produced in October of last year, and that 260,000 bottles had been sold in eight provinces: Hebei, Shanxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Shaanxi, Yunnan and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

The health ministry did not say how the suspected injection had caused the baby's death or the adverse reactions, nor did it report any further cases.

Samples of the drug are currently being tested at an institute of the Shanxi provincial drug safety watchdog, and results are expected in about 10 days, it said.

On Oct 6, bacterial contamination of another injectable herbal product was blamed for three deaths in Yunnan province.

The product, known as ciwujia, is processed from a type of Siberian ginseng produced by the Wandashan Pharmaceutical Co based in Heilongjiang province.

The health ministry later issued a ban on the use of the herbal injection.

The suspected ciwujia also triggered a nationwide recall of all injectable products produced by the pharmaceutical company.

This latest health scare comes on the heels of the tainted milk scandal, which left four children dead and thousands of others sick across the country.