Health Highlights: Sept. 19, 2008

Sept. 20 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Chinese Tainted Milk Crisis Widens

The tainted milk crisis in China widened Friday as stores pulled dairy products off their shelves after government officials said the industrial chemical melamine was found in liquid milk produced by three of the country's major dairy companies.

Inspectors found that about 10 percent of liquid milk samples taken from Mengniu Dairy Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co. -- the country's two largest dairy producers -- contained melamine. The chemical was also found in milk samples from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy, the Associated Press reported.

On Friday, Hong Kong's two biggest grocery chains -- PARKnSHOP and Wellcome -- cleared their shelves of all liquid milk from Mengniu. On Thursday, Hong Kong recalled all milk, yogurt, ice cream and other dairy products made by Yili Industrial Group Co.

The 300 Starbucks cafes in mainland China were told to stop using milk supplied by Mengniu. And Singapore told stores to remove a Chinese-made yogurt bar that may be contaminated, the AP reported.

It had been thought the milk crisis was limited to tainted baby formula that's killed four infants and sickened 6,200 in China. About 1,300 infants are in hospitals and 158 of them are suffering from acute kidney failure.

-----

Boost Public Confidence in Vaccines: Coalition

Americans' confidence in vaccine safety needs to be restored to help keep dangerous disease outbreaks under control, says a coalition of 22 major medical organizations that includes the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The coalition wants public health officials to counteract campaigns by advocacy groups that claim vaccines can cause autism, even though there's no scientific proof that's true, the Associated Press reported. Public information campaigns and more vaccine research are among the ways to boost public confidence in vaccines, according to the coalition.