Tokyo, April 2 (EFE).- Almost 800 people had sought medical attention last month after consuming red yeast rice supplements withdrawn from a Japanese pharmaceutical company and 157 were hospitalized, according to official data published Tuesday.

Japan's health ministry said 786 people had seen doctors as of Sunday after consuming the Kobayashi Pharmaceutical product, linked to the death of five people, though the exact cause is still unknown. The ministry said investigations continue to study the reasons of the health problems.

Patients' consultations were related to kidney disease and other pathologies after having consumed some of the company's pills, sold as supplements for cholesterol reduction, and authorities said the 157 admissions were due to anomalies in patients' physical condition.

The health ministry and the country's consumer agency received 1,578 telephone queries related to the consumption of the products last month through a special line, while the pharmaceutical company itself received about 22,000, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical said it found puberulic acid in some of the supplements, a natural compound possibly derived from the fermentation process and that can be toxic in certain doses, according to the health ministry, though it is unknown if it is causing the problems.

The Japanese pharmaceutical company has recalled 300,000 containers of three types of food supplements that contained red yeast rice, a type of this fermented cereal.

The product was also available in Taiwan, through an intermediary firm, and in China, through e-commerce platforms.

In addition to cholesterol-lowering supplements, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical distributed red yeast rice to 52 other domestic and foreign companies, asking them to recall their products in case they might also be affected.

In turn, those 50 companies could have supplied raw materials originating in Kobayashi to another 173 companies. EFE

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