Health authorities in northwest China have reopened an investigation into one of the four infant deaths suspected to be related to the consumption of milk products tainted with industrial chemical melamine.

The health department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region reported the death, which was attributed to kidney stones, on September 18. Since then the death toll from the contaminated milk has been widely reported as four.

The infant died at a hospital in the Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin, the regional health department said on its website (www.xjwst.gov.cn), but no more details about the victim were given.

The information was deleted from the website the next day.

"The baby died of kidney stones in March. At first we thought it was caused by the baby formula contaminated with the chemical melamine, but now we need to check whether the death was directly linked to the tainted milk," said Li Huaihai, health department spokesman.

"Medical experts are reinvestigating the case, but it needs time to get the final result as the baby had been buried," he said, without telling Xinhua how the examination would be conducted or when it would be completed.

"The result will not be submitted to the Health Ministry until it is confirmed," he said.

As of Monday, kidney problems had hospitalized 752 babies in Xinjiang, of whom 628 had been discharged while another 124 are still being treated, according to the department.

Three babies, including two in the northwestern Gansu Province and one in the eastern Zhejiang Province, died after consuming tainted milk powder from May to August, according to the Ministry of Health. No deaths were reported in September.

The contaminated baby formula left more than 53,000 with urinary tract problems, including kidney stones, according to the ministry.

A total of 12,892 infants were hospitalized, according to information from the ministry on September 21. The ministry has not released any updated figures since then.

The director of the ministry's information office, who declined to be named, said on Wednesday that the ministry would release updated figures "at a suitable time."

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2008)