Xian kindergartens secretly fed pupils flu pills for 5 years, police say

Two private kindergartens in Xian, Shaanxi province, started secretly giving thousands of children prescription flu medicine more than five years ago, local police have said.

The claims sharply escalate a scandal which has seen five people who help run the facilities detained and hundreds of angry parents storm one of the schools in search of more information.

Police said on Thursday that the Fengyun and Hongji kindergartens had begun administering the medication to pupils in 2008 in a bid to keep them healthy, improve attendance rates and thereby maintain their revenue, Xinhua reported. Kindergarten fees are charged by the day.

An initial inquiry found the kindergartens had fraudulently used the name of a medical institution to buy 54,600 pills of the antiviral moroxydine hydrochloride from four pharmaceutical wholesalers 10 times between November 2008 and last October.

A Hong Kong paediatrician said the medication was not used any more. He noted impure pills were a problem on the mainland.

Last week a mother found an untaken pill on her six-year-old daughter. She is one of more than 500 parents who now say their children have suffered headaches, body pains and itching.