Hong Kong recorded 82 poisoning cases caused by mistakes in administering medicines between July 2005 and September 2006. Fourteen of the poisoned were children.

A pediatrician at the Prince of Wales Hospital said that a common error is for parents, fearing that a fever may cause brain damage, to give their children too much medicine when they have fevers.

But brain damage caused by fever is rare, whereas an overdose may be lethal, the pediatrician said.

Covering children with thick quilts to make them sweat is also not a good cure for fever, but giving them warm-water sponge baths helps, he added.

(Ming Pao)