The Gambian authorities are determined to “identify those responsible“of the 66 child deaths in the country.”The Gambia Police Force establishes an Investigation Unit to immediately investigate and identify those responsible for this irreparable loss and bring them to justice“, she said in a press release this Saturday, October 8. The government expressed its “deepest concern“and will do everything”to elucidate these events“. President Adama Barrow ordered in particular to suspend the license of the importer of the syrups in question.
AKI Death Cases- @BarrowPresident authorized the suspension of License of the suspected importer and pharmacy. pic.twitter.com/RSa8OALcqo
— State House of The Gambia (@Presidency_GMB) October 8, 2022
A few days earlier, the World Health Organization had also launched a a “Medical product alert” about four cough and cold syrups, suspected of having caused the death of the 66 children. “WHO is investigating with the company and regulators in India“, announced this Wednesday, October 5 Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO.
The four syrups concerned are Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup. They all have one thing in common: they are manufactured by the Indian laboratory Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited. They “may be linked to acute kidney injury and death of 66 children“, added the director general of the organization.
“WHO has today issued a medical product alert for four contaminated medicines identified in #Gambia that have been potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children. The loss of these young lives is beyond heartbreaking for their families”-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) October 5, 2022
Shared by the WHO, a technical document reports that “laboratory analysis of samples of each of the four products confirms contamination by diethylene glycol and ethyl glycol in unacceptable quantities”. The effects of these two toxic and deadly substances include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, inability to urinate, headaches, altered mental status and kidney damage that can lead to death.
If the contaminations were identified in The Gambia, the syrups could have been distributed through informal markets elsewhere in the world. “In addition, the manufacturer may have used the same contaminated material in other products and distributed them locally or exported them.“, continues the organization.
Withdraw all these drugs from circulation
As a precaution, it recommends that all countries detect these drugs and withdraw from sale and circulation. “All batches of these products should be considered unsafe until they can be analyzed by European National Regulatory Authorities“, she finishes.
These syrups are not the first drugs to be implicated in these deaths. On September 9, the Gambian authorities declared that they had opened an investigation into the death of 28 children from acute kidney failure. Hospitals and clinics were then asked to no longer use paracetamol. They then considered E. coli bacteria as the probable cause of these deaths, and ordered the recall of all drugs containing paracetamol or promethazine syrup.
Sources:
- WHO alert, October 5, 2022
- AKI Death Cases- President Barrow Authorizes the Suspension of License of Suspected Importer and PharmacyOffice of the president of the Republic of Gambia, 8 October 2022
