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The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an alert on four cough and cold syrups manufactured in India by Maiden Pharmaceuticals, warning that they may be linked to the deaths of 66 children in the Gambia. The UN health agency also warned that the contaminated pharmaceuticals could have been sold outside of the West African country, posing a risk of worldwide exposure.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the four cold and cough syrups in question “may have been connected to acute renal damage and 66 deaths among youngsters.” “For their families, the loss of these young lives is painful.”
Tedros further stated that WHO was “doing an additional investigation with the company and regulatory authorities in India.” The four products are Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup, according to a medical product alert issued by WHO on Wednesday.
Blood sugar levels will be tested in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in November 2021. According to WHO, noncommunicable illnesses kill one person under the age of 70 every two seconds. Gambian officials began collecting paracetamol and promethazine syrup from rural homes in the West Coast and Upper River Regions on Thursday.
An ongoing Gambian health ministry investigation has also identified E. coli bacteria as a likely cause of the acute renal failure outbreak. “The preliminary results from the continuing inquiry show that the paracetamol and promethazine syrups were most likely the source of the acute kidney injury cases in this outbreak,” Abubacarr Jagne, the nephrologist leading the health ministry’s probe, told AFP on Wednesday.
On September 23, health officials ordered the recall of all medicines containing paracetamol or promethazine syrup. In July, The Gambia saw its worst floods in years, causing sewers and latrines to overflow. “There has been an upsurge in the number of severe kidney illness with high fatality among children from July 2022, primarily as a result of diarrheal diseases,” the ministry said in a statement in September.
Many children had E. coli germs in their feces, but many had also taken paracetamol syrup, according to the study. “To date, the indicated producer has not supplied WHO with guarantees on the safety and quality of these items,” according to the notice, adding that laboratory analysis of product samples “confirms that they contain excessive quantities of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as impurities.”
It added that the toxic impact “may include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, inability to pass urine, headache, changed mental state, and severe renal injury which may lead to death.” When contacted by Reuters, Maiden Pharma declined to comment, while calls and messages to the Drugs Controller General of India went unanswered. The Indian Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for comment.
According to WHO, information acquired from India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization suggested that the tainted medications were solely delivered to the Gambia by the manufacturer. “However, the supply of these products to other African nations through informal or uncontrolled channels cannot be ruled out,” the UN agency stated in an email.
“Additionally, the company may have used the same tainted material in other items that were supplied locally or overseas,” it said.”As a result, global exposure is conceivable.” Tedros encouraged prudence, urging all governments to cooperate together to “identify and remove these products from circulation in order to prevent additional harm to patients.”
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