An antibiotic injection is suspected to have killed three people in China and made another 78 ill, pharmaceutical authorities said on Saturday.

 

The Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Center of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) has received 81 reports of severe reaction in recipients of the antibiotic produced by the Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co. in the eastern Anhui Province.

 

The reports came from 10 provinces, according to the center.

 

The administration has recalled and banned the use of the clindamycin phosphate glucose injection that is used to treat bacterial infections.

 

It has also ordered Anhui Provincial Food and Drug Bureau to track and locate all batches of the drug.

 

The drug is suspected of being responsible for the death of a 48-year-old woman who died on Wednesday in central China's Hubei Province. A six-year-old girl in Harbin, capital of northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province, died on July 27 after being injected with the drug while being treated for a common cold.

 

Patients in Qinghai first reported kidney pains, stomachaches, nausea, and vomiting and chest pains after using the drug on July 27. Similar reports were filed in Guangxi, Zhejiang, Shangdong and Heilongjiang provinces.

 

The SFDA has sent a team of experts to investigate the link between the reactions and the antibiotic injection, the administration said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2006)