Nine children dead and dozens more sickened after consuming contaminated baby formula

• Nine dead children died and dozens more were sickened after consuming contaminated baby formula.
• FDA received several claims and investigated.
• The Abbott factory has been closed and the baby formula shortage continues.

BABY FORMULA ALERT. It has been confirmed that nine children have died and dozens more were sickened, possibly due to having consumed baby formula that was produced in the Abbott factory in Michigan that was closed due to contamination.

Initially, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received a series of warnings and investigated the situation. However, they only confirmed that two children had died and two others had become ill after consuming the baby formula produced at the plant in Sturgis, Michigan.

Nine children dead and dozens more sick from contaminated baby formula

Despite early inquiries, the FDA admitted Friday that it had received more reports of children who had died and others who became ill after drinking formula from a Michigan factory possibly contaminated with the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii.

According to new documents, since the beginning of 2021, as many as nine children have died from ingesting baby formula. However, the agency has not been able to confirm that the source of the infection for these nine deaths was from the Abbott factory and that many times there was not enough formula left to analyze if it was contaminated, reported The Sun.

Concerns and doubts

According to authorities, in some of the cases of infants who died from bacterial infections, test results revealed they had different strains than those found at the Sturgis plant during the inspection that led the FDA to shut down facilities for five months.

Questions arise: Did the babies really die from ingesting the formula? Are more children at risk? How does Abbott Nutrition keep the plant clean? How did the FDA handle complaints against the Sturgis factory? What is certain is that after the plant that produces a large amount of the powdered baby formula in the country was closed, the shortage of this product, which is so important in infant feeding, has been a major problem in the US.

Babies’ health at stake

«The FDA takes its responsibility very seriously to ensure that the food we eat is safe and meets our rigorous quality and safety standards,» the FDA said in a statement, which included reports of infant deaths in a long list of 128 complaints that were registered between December and March.

However, they only accepted four cases as conclusive. “Based on the FDA’s extensive review and investigation of the 128 consumer complaints reported to the agency and recently released to the media in response to a FOIA request, only four complaints could be included in the series of cases associated with Abbott Nutrition research.»

Aren’t they related?

Abbott defends itself by arguing that there were no results linking them to the deaths. «Abbott conducts microbiological testing of products prior to distribution, and no Abbott formula distributed to consumers has tested positive for Cronobacter sakazakii or Salmonella,» the company said in a statement, adding that «No Salmonella was found at the Sturgis facility.»

For now, in the midst of the shortage, the US authorities agreed to import nearly four million equivalents of 8-ounce bottles of infant formula that will arrive by June 19, as a way to help compensate for the enormous shortage of baby formula. The names of the victims have not been released.

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