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Published online: 21 January 2009 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2009.9
Urology: Melamine panic?
Felix Cheung
Abstract
Researchers in Hong Kong say there is no urgency for renal screening of people who were exposed to low doses of melamine
Original article citation
et al. Renal screening in children after exposure to low dose melamine in Hong Kong: Cross sectional study. Br. Med. J. 337, a2991 (2008).Introduction
© (2009) istockphoto.com/Olga Lyubkina
The 2008 Sanlu milk scandal has sparked a global health fear, and many governments around the world are under pressure to provide free, large-scale renal screening programmes. However, Hugh Simon Hung San Lam and co-workers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong1 say such urgency is unnecessary, because their latest findings show that children who were exposed to melamine of less than 0.63 mg per kilogram body weight per day — the tolerable daily intake for melamine set by the US Food and Drug Administration — are unlikely to get adverse kidney problems.
At least 294,000 babies in mainland China have fallen ill as a result of the milk scandal that broke in September 2008. Young children who had been exposed to high doses of melamine have reported adverse kidney problems, such as kidney stones and acute kidney failure.
After the milk scandal, the government in Hong Kong initiated a territory-wide renal screening programme for children aged 12 years or younger. By the end of October 2008, the special assessment centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital had screened the kidneys of 3,170 children for kidney deposits by using ultrasound and urine tests. These children had consumed milk products tainted with melamine, but none consumed more than the tolerable daily intake.
Of these children, 208 (6.56%) tested positive for blood in urine. Eight (0.22%) were suspected of having renal deposits, but only one child (0.03%) had a confirmed kidney stone.
The low prevalence of adverse kidney problems found in these children suggests that large-scale screening programmes are neither informative nor cost effective for populations exposed to low doses of melamine.
The authors of this work are from:
Department of Paediatrics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Organ Imaging, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Reference
- Lam, H. S. et al. Renal screening in children after exposure to low dose melamine in Hong Kong: Cross sectional study. Br. Med. J. 337, a2991 (2008). | Article |
