China's health ministry on Friday ordered the country's health institutions to stop using a kind of disposable intravenous needle, after receiving report that a needle snapped and left part of it in the vein of an infant's scalp.

Local medical departments should assist drug safety departments to recall the batch of disposable intravenous needles made on April 21 this year by the Shanghai-based Damei Medicinal Plastic Factory, the ministry said on its website.

The recall came after a maternity and child care center in China's eastern province of Guangdong reported the incident on October 17.

No further information about the infant and its status is immediately available.

Sample tests conducted by the care center on six needles from the same batch found all six broke easily.

"It is highly likely to be a serious case caused by products of low quality," the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said on its website.

The SFDA has ordered the manufacturer to stop production of the needles the day it received the report, and to recall all disposable intravenous needles produced by the factory.

It did not say how many needles of the same batch were produced or circulating on the market.

The SFDA on Wednesday ordered a nationwide recall of the hemorrhoid medicine off pharmacy shelves over fears the capsules were to blame for liver problems.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2008)