VICTORIA’S health department has issued a warning about drinking raw milk after several children became seriously ill.

The milk is sold in health food shops for cosmetic purposes and has caused five recent known cases of severe illness in children, chief health officer Dr Rosemary Lester says.

The death of a three-year-old has also reportedly been referred to the coroner.

The sale of unpasteurised milk for human consumption is illegal in Victoria, but the raw milk is being marketed as bath or cosmetic milk.

Dr Lester says raw milk can affect the kidneys and the bloodstream and cause watery diarrhoea.

“Only a small number of these pathogens are needed to cause illness,” she said.

Dr Lester says bath milk packaging is very similar to drinking milk, and they could be easily confused.

She says the pathogens in raw milk can make anyone sick but risks are greatest for young children, elderly, pregnant or otherwise unhealthy people.

“Since the 1940s it has been compulsory to pasteurise cow’s milk in Australia,” Dr Lester said.

“Milk is heated for a very short period of time effectively destroying any disease-causing bacteria which may be present in raw milk.” The three-year-old died after drinking organic bath milk, the Herald Sun reports.