Dickson Nigel, Kara Tonya, Tuohy Pat
New Zealand Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
J Paediatr Child Health. 2009 Nov;45(11):633-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1754.2009.01585.x. Epub 2009 Oct 19.
The aim of this study was to determine if there have been recent serious renal problems because of melamine among infants in New Zealand.
New Zealand paediatricians were surveyed in October 2008 using the New Zealand Paediatric Surveillance Unit network.
Two cases of renal stones and none of unexplained renal failure in the previous 12 months were reported. Both cases of renal stones had an identifiable cause, and neither had features of melamine-related stones.
This survey confirmed the expectation that this was not a discernible problem of recent serious melamine-associated renal damage in New Zealand. The method did however prove to be an effective way of undertaking a rapid determination of a possible recent serious health problem among children.
