The drug authority in north China's Hebei Province Thursday informed its counterparts in Hangzhou, Qingdao and Tangshan to stop using a batch of problem saline infusions produced by a drug-maker in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei.

A total of 5,790 bottles of glucose and sodium chloride were in the batch. They were produced by Shijiazhuang No. 4 Pharmaceutical Co and were sold in those cities, the Xinmin Evening News reported yesterday, citing an official surnamed Yan with the safety inspection division of the Hebei Food and Drug Administration.

Yan said investigators of the administration have been inspecting the production of the batch to find out what caused the amount of visible material in the batch to fall short of a national standard.

A task force of the administration also left Hebei for Beijing yesterday to report the case to the State Food and Drug Administration, Yan said.

The issue surfaced in a hospital in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, late last month.

On May 28, nine patients at the Zhejiang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine suffered adverse reactions, including fever and anesthesia, after taking the saline infusion, according to the reports.

The hospital halted use of all medicine produced by the drug-maker immediately and reported the incident to authorities.

Wang Shenhong, a hospital official, said the hospital purchased the solution through legal channels. He said the hospital had been using medicine produced by Shijiazhuang No. 4 Pharmaceutical for five or six years, and abnormal reactions never happened before the incident.

In Hangzhou, only this hospital used the drug-maker's medicine, Wang added.

Liu Jingbo, a Hangzhou drug authority spokesperson, said the authority found the amount of visible material in the solution was higher than the normal level, after a sample test. Liu said the hospital used 94 bottles on about 80 patients.

So far, local authorities haven't received reports of adverse reactions to the saline infusion.

(Shanghai Daily June 9, 2006)