Beijing: China's Health Ministry sent experts to investigate how 233 children at one Chinese kindergarten developed abdominal problems, state media reported today.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the children have been diagnosed with swollen mesenteric lymph nodes, citing a source from the provincial health department. The swollen lymph nodes could signal an infection in their intestines.

The children, who range in age from 3 to 8,had all attended Tiyi Kindergarten, a private school in the small seaside city of Cizi in eastern Zhejiang Province, Xinhua said. Some of the children have already graduated from the school.

A group of medical experts from the Health Ministry arrived today morning, said a staffer from the emergency office of the provincial health department. She only gave her surname, Liao, as is customary with officials.

The abdominal problems emerged after parents took their children to the hospital for checkups because they suspected that cooking oil used in the school kitchen was unclean, Xinhua said.

Local doctors assured them the symptoms were not uncommon in young children, but many parents persisted and brought their children to get ultrasound tests in the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, the report said.
Source : PTI