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Why six years after being advised NOT to use milk-based powdered formula for feeding premature babies are hospitals still doing it?

That's the question that a joint investigation of The Beacon News and Chicago's CBS2 affiliate raises as it looks into why premature babies were fed powdered formula that was contaminated with Enterobacter Sakazakii.

Five-month old Connor McGray died on May 3, 2008.  Connor McGray and his twin brother Logan were born prematurely on Nov. 16, 2007, at Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, IL.  Originally, Connor was the stronger of the two premature babies.  But then, he became lethargic and refused to eat.

The cause of death listed on the baby's death certificate is hydrocephalus and bacterial meningitis. The bacterial infection, according to a memo from the Illinois Department of Public Health, "may be associated with the consumption of a powdered breast milk fortifier."

The Enfamil brand powdered formula was fed to the baby while he was being cared for in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at Rush-Copley.

The Beacon News story sums up the threat Enfamil and like formulas present to premature babies:

"The danger with powdered formula is that, unlike the liquid kind, it cannot be sterilized, making it vulnerable to bacteria growing in it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The most severe cases involve babies exposed to a bacteria called Enterobacter sakazakii, or E-sak, which can lead to raging infections, severe brain damage and ultimately death, according to the CDC.

(His mother) Amanda Carlin said Connor died after the E-sak bacteria led to an infection which caused the deadly form of meningitis.

The baby suffered from seizures and brain abscess. And his blood and cerebral spinal fluid tested positive for the organism, the Health Department document says."

Health professionals were warned about this in 2002 by FDA in this memo after an E. sakazakii outbreak in Tennessee in 2001.   CBS2 tonight reported on another victim in Des Moines, Iowa.  In that case, the infant is still alive but suffering from severe brain damage.  

See tonight's CBS2 report by going here.

The Beacon's main story is here.

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 China and Australia are trading partners, but are not seeing eye-to-eye when it comes to the safety of some milk products being imported to the PRC. As we reported earlier this month: China Finds Enterobacter Sakazakii In Australian Baby Milk

China turned away nine tons of Ausnutria products, manufactured by Australian dairy supplier Tatura and 14 tons of Pauls milk, produced by Parmalat Australia, a subsidiary of the Italian food giant. All, said the China Inspection and Quarantine (CIQ) , contained Enterobacter sakazakii which can cause fatal infections in infants.

For its part, Tatura said it was surprised by the CIQ findings, and that it would not change its own testing procedures and it wanted to make clear that Tatura's product was not linked to the recent scandal in which the industrial chemical melamine was discovered in milk made by 22 Chinese companies and then in eggs.

China's melamine scandal has made at least 53,000 children ill, and killed at least four.

After exporting 891 tons of product to China this year, Tatura officials were flustrated by being blocked at the Chinese border. We don't get the results. You can't negotiate, you can't fight it, it just gets turned around (at the border)."

Meanwhile, some European officials were even more blunt. "It's just something they use, I'm sure it's retaliation," a European Union official said.

For more, go here and here.

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Baby milk, manufactured by Australia's Ausnutria Dairy Co Ltd, was found to contain the Enterobacter sakazakii bacteria and rejected for import to China.

China Daily reported that batches of the Australian baby milk were among  2,719 consignments of imported food and cosmetics were rejected in the first seven months of this year, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

Of the rejected goods, 191 consignments were discovered during inbound tests, the AQSIQ said.

The tainted baby milk, manufactured by Australia's Ausnutria Dairy Co Ltd, was discovered on June 10 by the Hunan provincial quality supervision and inspection bureau.

China Daily said there were no reports of illness from Enterobacter sakazakii related to the bad milk. For more on the rejected imports, go here.

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