At least 13 babies fed on fake milk powder have died in China's eastern province of Anhui, state media said on Wednesday, in the latest tragic scandal involving counterfeit goods churned out in China's race to get rich quick.
An investigation showed 171 babies, mostly between three and five months old, suffered from malnutrition after being fed the powder in rural areas around the Anhui city of Fuyang, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
"For babies, drinking such fake milk powder is no different from drinking water," the official People's Daily newspaper quoted Zhang Fangjun, an expert with the local hospital, as saying on its Web site at www.peopledaily.com.cn.
Xinhua news agency said two infants were still in hospital.
The news has drawn widespread attention in the past few days with pictures of the malnourished children, described as "big-head babies" because their bodies waste away, carried in many Chinese newspapers.
"Born healthy, the baby victims became thinner and thinner, their heads large in comparison to their bodies," the People's Daily said.
More than 50 babies had died of nutritional deficiencies, the Beijing Youth Daily quoted an Anhui newspaper as saying, but said it could not confirm the reports.
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