National Health Commission recently issued a notice to strengthen the supervision and law enforcement of children’s trace element detection, and not to take trace element detection as a general survey item such as physical examination.
The notice requires that all kinds of medical and health institutions at all levels should strictly regulate the detection of trace elements in children in accordance with the requirements of diagnosis and treatment norms, clinical diagnosis and treatment guidelines, clinical technical operation norms and industry standards. Trace element detection should not be carried out for children without diagnosis and treatment, and trace element detection should not be used as a general survey item such as physical examination. Local health administrative departments at all levels should strengthen the supervision and law enforcement of children’s trace element detection, and severely deal with medical and health institutions and medical personnel who carry out detection in violation of the above provisions according to laws and regulations. As early as 2013, China issued the Notice on Standardizing the Clinical Detection of Trace Elements in Children, which clearly pointed out that "the detection of trace elements should not be used as a general survey item such as physical examination, especially for infants under 6 months", but the irregular detection of trace elements in children in medical and health institutions still exists. (CCTV reporter Long Xiaoqin)