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China suspends herbal injection after three deaths

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-08 23:02

BEIJING - China on Wednesday suspended distribution and medical use of a herbal injection produced by a pharmaceutical firm based in the northeast Heilongjiang Province.

Six patients in the southwestern Yunnan Province reported a strong adverse reaction after taking injections containing extracts of the plant Ciwujia, or Siberian ginseng, produced by the Heilongjiang-based Wandashan Pharmaceutical, according to a notice issued on the websites of the Ministry of Health and State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).

Three people died before the SFDA had received a report from its provincial office in Yunnan on Monday, the notice said.

The ministry and SFDA sent two inspection teams to Yunnan and Heilongjiang, respectively, on Tuesday.

Health departments and SFDA's local offices were informed to follow similar cases. To date, the SFDA had not received any such reports from other parts of China except Yunnan, the notice said.

Siberian ginseng injections are often used to help treat thrombosis and coronary heart disease.