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This article documents the events took place and efforts made during the evening of 2/27/02 and early morning of 2/28/02 to locate and obtain botulism antitoxin to save the six family members in Urumqi, Xinjiang suffering from food poison. During the eleven hours of frantic searching for the antitoxin, I worked very closely with Ms. Sha, Yun of Xinjiang D’Long, who initiated the search in the United State about 13 hours before I got involved. The search for the antitoxin on my part took about 11 hours. During this period of time, I made or received over 40 phone calls, to or from 6 countries in 3 Continents. To me, it was a miracle that we were able to locate the antitoxin and have it shipped to China within such short period of time. This miracle was made possible by a combination of our determination and resourcefulness one the one hand and many people’s selfless effort and support on the other hand, especially people working for The California Poison Control System, California Department of Health Services, Center for Disease Control and by the support of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.

At about 4 pm on February 27, 2002, I received an urgent message from Ms. Sha, Yun. She was searching for an antitoxin for 6 people in Xinjian who were seriously infected by food poisoning. Since I am the Chief Executive of Chinese Enterprise Association (CEA), she wanted to know if any of our members make such antitoxin. Ms. Sha gave me the name of the medicine in Chinese and its English translation, which she believed to be a prescription drug. I was in a meeting with Sandy Calhoun and Wang, Liang at Square Sanders, an international law firm, in San Francisco. We immediately stopped our meeting and started discussing how to obtain this prescription drug. Sandy thought we should contact hospitals. Square Sanders Cleveland office represents a clinic there. Sandy drafted an e-mail message to his colleagues in Cleveland. He also gave the message to two other attorneys in the firm who were on their way to Cleveland. In addition, Sandy personally delivered the message to an old friend of his who has close relationship with UCSF medical school. At the same time, Mr. Jin, Xu, head of the Commercial Group of the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, was making phone calls to local hospitals and doctors to see if a prescription could be obtained. Mr. Jin also stood behind us and ready give us whatever support he could.

From about 5 pm to 7 pm, I was on the way home from San Francisco to Mountain View. On the way, I discussed the problem with Lu, Xin of the Consulate, Wang Liang and Sha Yun. We thought we should go to a hospital and ask if such antitoxin was readily available and how to get it.

I went through my rolodex after I got home to find bilingual doctor friends who might give me more insight on how to proceed. Unfortunately, I could only find one whom I have not talked to for several years. Apparently he had moved because the number I had did not work any more.

I called another friend of mine who is a Ph.D. candidate at UCSF dental school. She should have some friends who go to medical school. I asked her if she knew any Chinese doctors who could write a prescription for us. She said she would call a few friends first and call me back. In the mean time, Sha Yun called me. She had talked with two Chinese students at UC Davis Medical School. They gave her the correct English name of the medicine, i.e. Botulinum antitoxin. They also told her that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has the antitoxin, but it may be very difficult to get since it is been tightly controlled by the US government since the 9-11 incident. She said they could not find anyone at CDC to talk to since it was out of business hours. She said that we would have to wait until the next day.

I did not want to give up so quickly. I had to try my best first. I called Rite Aid, a pharmacy, to find out if this medicine was readily available with a doctor’s prescription. If it was true, then I should focus on getting the prescription. The person answered the phone looked up the computer database and told me that the pharmacy did not have it. She also told me that pharmacies normally do not carry antitoxin. I should contact food poison control agencies.

As I was going through the telephone book to find the phone number of food poison control, Han Qin called me back. She had talked with a few friends and concluded that I should talk with the poison control center. She had the phone number on a magnetic note posted on her refrigerator. Such notes are handy for parents with young children in case of emergency. It served its purpose in this case. It was about 8 pm. I was worried that no one would answer my phone calls until the next day. I wanted to get as much info as I could that evening. Every second counted.

I called the Poison Control Center of California. Eilleen Morentz answered the call. She was very helpful. She searched the database and found out that there were actually two poison control centers in China, one in Beijing and one in Lanzhou (China Medical University). She only had Lanzhou’s phone number. I called the number but it was a residence. I called Eilleen back to see if I could get more information from her. She gave me the phone number of Botulism Control Center under California Department of Health, and the phone number of Infectious Decease Control which is another agency under the California Department of Health. Eilleen was searching for more related information while she was talking to me. She found Connaught Labs of Canada, the manufacturer of the antitoxin. Since it was after business hours, she offered to call the phone number listed for physicians and health professionals. She would call me back.

Throughout the night, I was constantly on the phone with Sha Yun to keep her informed of my progress and to find out if she had got any more information. She was very excited that we found the maker of the drug. We were making progress. At this time, we were still not sure how much information we could find out that evening.

The excitement did not last long, however. Eilleen called me back to tell me that she was told Connaught Labs in Canada had stopped making this antitoxin. She gave me a phone number of Center for Disease Control (CDC) to call. Sha Yun had told me earlier that two of her friends had told her that CDC is the agency to contact. Although she had CDC’s phone number, no one was there to answer the calls for the day. I called CDC and did not get anyone to talk to, either.

It was about 9 pm. I decided to try one of the other two phone numbers Eilleen gave me: the Botulism Control Center. It turned out to be the Infant Botulism Control Center. The person answering the phone told me the Center helps adults as well. She took notes of what I was looking for and paged doctors. She told me someone would be calling me.

It made me nervous whenever someone told me that I would be called back because I did not have control over whether and when that person or any person would actually call me back or not. I wanted so much to move on as quickly as I could with every lead I got.

A Dr. Robert Schechter called me. He received the note and page sent by the Infant Botulism Control Center. He was with the State Health Department in Berkeley. I started to tell him the situation in China. When I told him that seven people were suffering from food poisoning by eating home-made preserved bean curd, he immediately asked me whether it was “Chou Do Fu” in Chinese. I was truly surprised that he actually knew this term in Chinese. He apparently was knowledgeable about China. He know where Xinjiang is. He told me that there is a botulism test center in Lanzhou and the infected people should be tested to determine the type of infection for efficient treatment. There are three types of infection, Type A, B and E. He said Type A was most common in China. Dr. Schechter told me that to his knowledge, that there are four botulism antitoxin manufacturers in the world, one in Canada, one in Germany, one in Poland and one in Japan. The Canadian made antitoxin comes in 2 types, one for Type A and B, and another one for Type E. The German and Polish make one type of antitoxin for all three types of infection. He said CDC should have the antitoxin and CDC has an office in San Francisco. He said he would call a CDC doctor to help me. He told me either him or a doctor from CDC would call me back within an hour. I told him that I was really lucky to have found him. His knowledge about botulism situation in China was very helpful.

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Links BCIS Website BCIS Forms Visa Bulletin	(Page 1) This article documents the events took place and efforts made during the evening of 2/27/02 and early morning of 2/28/02 to locate and obtain botulism antitoxin to save the six family members in Urumqi, Xinjiang suffering from food poison. During the eleven hours of frantic searching for the antitoxin, I worked very closely with Ms. Sha, Yun of Xinjiang D’Long, who initiated the search in the United State about 13 hours before I got involved. The search for the antitoxin on my part took about 11 hours. During this period of time, I made or received over 40 phone calls, to or from 6 countries in 3 Continents. To me, it was a miracle that we were able to locate the antitoxin and have it shipped to China within such short period of time. This miracle was made possible by a combination of our determination and resourcefulness one the one hand and many people’s selfless effort and support on the other hand, especially people working for The California Poison Control System, California Department of Health Services, Center for Disease Control and by the support of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. At about 4 pm on February 27, 2002, I received an urgent message from Ms. Sha, Yun. She was searching for an antitoxin for 6 people in Xinjian who were seriously infected by food poisoning. Since I am the Chief Executive of Chinese Enterprise Association (CEA), she wanted to know if any of our members make such antitoxin. Ms. Sha gave me the name of the medicine in Chinese and its English translation, which she believed to be a prescription drug. I was in a meeting with Sandy Calhoun and Wang, Liang at Square Sanders, an international law firm, in San Francisco. We immediately stopped our meeting and started discussing how to obtain this prescription drug. Sandy thought we should contact hospitals. Square Sanders Cleveland office represents a clinic there. Sandy drafted an e-mail message to his colleagues in Cleveland. He also gave the message to two other attorneys in the firm who were on their way to Cleveland. In addition, Sandy personally delivered the message to an old friend of his who has close relationship with UCSF medical school. At the same time, Mr. Jin, Xu, head of the Commercial Group of the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, was making phone calls to local hospitals and doctors to see if a prescription could be obtained. Mr. Jin also stood behind us and ready give us whatever support he could. From about 5 pm to 7 pm, I was on the way home from San Francisco to Mountain View. On the way, I discussed the problem with Lu, Xin of the Consulate, Wang Liang and Sha Yun. We thought we should go to a hospital and ask if such antitoxin was readily available and how to get it. I went through my rolodex after I got home to find bilingual doctor friends who might give me more insight on how to proceed. Unfortunately, I could only find one whom I have not talked to for several years. Apparently he had moved because the number I had did not work any more. I called another friend of mine who is a Ph.D. candidate at UCSF dental school. She should have some friends who go to medical school. I asked her if she knew any Chinese doctors who could write a prescription for us. She said she would call a few friends first and call me back. In the mean time, Sha Yun called me. She had talked with two Chinese students at UC Davis Medical School. They gave her the correct English name of the medicine, i.e. Botulinum antitoxin. They also told her that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has the antitoxin, but it may be very difficult to get since it is been tightly controlled by the US government since the 9-11 incident. She said they could not find anyone at CDC to talk to since it was out of business hours. She said that we would have to wait until the next day. I did not want to give up so quickly. I had to try my best first. I called Rite Aid, a pharmacy, to find out if this medicine was readily available with a doctor’s prescription. If it was true, then I should focus on getting the prescription. The person answered the phone looked up the computer database and told me that the pharmacy did not have it. She also told me that pharmacies normally do not carry antitoxin. I should contact food poison control agencies. As I was going through the telephone book to find the phone number of food poison control, Han Qin called me back. She had talked with a few friends and concluded that I should talk with the poison control center. She had the phone number on a magnetic note posted on her refrigerator. Such notes are handy for parents with young children in case of emergency. It served its purpose in this case. It was about 8 pm. I was worried that no one would answer my phone calls until the next day. I wanted to get as much info as I could that evening. Every second counted. I called the Poison Control Center of California. Eilleen Morentz answered the call. She was very helpful. She searched the database and found out that there were actually two poison control centers in China, one in Beijing and one in Lanzhou (China Medical University). She only had Lanzhou’s phone number. I called the number but it was a residence. I called Eilleen back to see if I could get more information from her. She gave me the phone number of Botulism Control Center under California Department of Health, and the phone number of Infectious Decease Control which is another agency under the California Department of Health. Eilleen was searching for more related information while she was talking to me. She found Connaught Labs of Canada, the manufacturer of the antitoxin. Since it was after business hours, she offered to call the phone number listed for physicians and health professionals. She would call me back. Throughout the night, I was constantly on the phone with Sha Yun to keep her informed of my progress and to find out if she had got any more information. She was very excited that we found the maker of the drug. We were making progress. At this time, we were still not sure how much information we could find out that evening. The excitement did not last long, however. Eilleen called me back to tell me that she was told Connaught Labs in Canada had stopped making this antitoxin. She gave me a phone number of Center for Disease Control (CDC) to call. Sha Yun had told me earlier that two of her friends had told her that CDC is the agency to contact. Although she had CDC’s phone number, no one was there to answer the calls for the day. I called CDC and did not get anyone to talk to, either. It was about 9 pm. I decided to try one of the other two phone numbers Eilleen gave me: the Botulism Control Center. It turned out to be the Infant Botulism Control Center. The person answering the phone told me the Center helps adults as well. She took notes of what I was looking for and paged doctors. She told me someone would be calling me. It made me nervous whenever someone told me that I would be called back because I did not have control over whether and when that person or any person would actually call me back or not. I wanted so much to move on as quickly as I could with every lead I got. A Dr. Robert Schechter called me. He received the note and page sent by the Infant Botulism Control Center. He was with the State Health Department in Berkeley. I started to tell him the situation in China. When I told him that seven people were suffering from food poisoning by eating home-made preserved bean curd, he immediately asked me whether it was “Chou Do Fu” in Chinese. I was truly surprised that he actually knew this term in Chinese. He apparently was knowledgeable about China. He know where Xinjiang is. He told me that there is a botulism test center in Lanzhou and the infected people should be tested to determine the type of infection for efficient treatment. There are three types of infection, Type A, B and E. He said Type A was most common in China. Dr. Schechter told me that to his knowledge, that there are four botulism antitoxin manufacturers in the world, one in Canada, one in Germany, one in Poland and one in Japan. The Canadian made antitoxin comes in 2 types, one for Type A and B, and another one for Type E. The German and Polish make one type of antitoxin for all three types of infection. He said CDC should have the antitoxin and CDC has an office in San Francisco. He said he would call a CDC doctor to help me. He told me either him or a doctor from CDC would call me back within an hour. I told him that I was really lucky to have found him. His knowledge about botulism situation in China was very helpful. Next Saving lives who were dying from food poisoning Wei Qun E