The WHO issued an alert on Wednesday that four cough and cold syrups produced by India’s Maiden Pharmaceuticals may have killed 66 children in The Gambia and been distributed in other countries.
It was the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who himself announced the “Medical Product Alert” during his weekly press conference on global health issues.
The contaminated drugs are cough and cold syrups that “may be linked to the acute kidney injury and death of 66 children,” it said.
These are four products: Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup. They are all made by the same company Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited.
“The manufacturer may have used the same contaminated material in other products”
“Furthermore, the manufacturer could have used the same contaminated material in other products and distributed them locally or exported them. Therefore, a general risk is possible,” the WHO warned. “The WHO is investigating with the company and regulators in India,” said Dr. Tedros.
In the technical document of the alert, the WHO indicates that “the laboratory analyzes of samples of each of the four products confirm contamination by diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol in unacceptable amounts.”
Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are toxic and can be fatal. Toxic effects include, according to the WHO, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, inability to urinate, headache, altered mental status, and acute kidney damage that can lead to death.-
The Geneva-based organization specifies that the four contaminated drugs were identified in The Gambia but could have been distributed, through informal markets, in other parts of Africa.
Detect and remove these drugs from the circulation.
“All batches of these products should be considered unsafe until they can be analyzed by the competent National Regulatory Authorities”, indicates the WHO. As a precautionary measure, the WHO recommends that all countries detect and withdraw these drugs from circulation.
On September 9, Gambian health authorities said they had opened an investigation in mid-July into the recent death of 28 children, some aged between five months and four years, from acute kidney failure. They had asked hospitals and clinics to stop using paracetamol syrup. Authorities also cited E. coli bacteria as possible causes.
But on September 23, the Gambian health authorities ordered the withdrawal from the market of all medicines containing paracetamol or promethazine syrup. The Gambian health authorities began operations on Wednesday to recover the products. Agents went door-to-door in homes in rural areas, they told an AFP correspondent. The recall should also apply to drug importers, wholesalers and retailers, including hospitals.
The Gambie, plus petits pays d’Afrique continentale avec a peu plus deux millions d’inhabitants, is 174e sur 191 à l’indice de développement humain de l’UN, which adds des critères de santé, d’éducation et de level of life. Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.
Source: BFM TV
