China to drug test all kindergarten children
China has launched a countrywide drug testing policy for kindergarten children after it emerged that some schools were giving children illegal antiviral medicines to prevent them from getting sick.
Around 170 million children will be subject to compulsory drug tests to determine how widespread the problem of the illegal administering of antivirals is in China. The problem has so far occurred in two separate provinces.
Kindergartens in China are only paid when children attend, unlike in the UK where parents pay per term or per month; therefore, a major outbreak of a viral infection results in a reduced income.
Parents are extremely angry that some kindergartens have given young children drugs without their permission. The Chinese government has promised that every single kindergarten will be investigated; however, the process will take a long time and the only way to determine if a kindergarten has committed a crime is to test every child. If a majority of children in a school show signs of having received an illegal antiviral, this would be a strong indication that the kindergarten was to blame.
The government said: “The focus is to investigate whether kindergartens are illegally organising the medication of groups of infants”. It aims to be able to report its findings by 15th April and has said that it will “severely punish” anybody found guilty of illegally administering a drug.
The problem first came to light when two schools in the city of Xi’an were found to have given their children moroxydine hydrochloride. More than 500 parents in the city reported that their children had been complaining of headaches and pain, which are side effects associated with the antiviral.
Unfortunately parents are not able to safely make complaints for fear of being detained; already three parents have been detained for protesting in public about the incident.