WHO raise alarm over Indian manufactured cough syrups killing children in Gambia
Cough syrups have been the subject of a global alert after the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning that they may have contributed to the deaths of 66 children in Gambia.
According to the report, the syrups “may be related to severe renal damage and 66 child fatalities.”
The products were created by an Indian business called Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which according to the WHO had not given assurances on their safety.
However, the business has not yet responded but they have requested the WHO to provide proof linking the syrups to the deaths.
The Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup were the medications named by the WHO.
The WHO said in the alert posted on its website that although the four goods had been discovered in The Gambia, they “may have been distributed, through informal markets, to other countries or regions.”
It issued a warning that using them could cause severe harm or even death, particularly in minors.
Medical authorities in Gambia, a major tourist destination, discovered an upsurge in instances of acute renal damage among children under the age of five in late July, prompting the WHO’s intervention.
Since then, the government of Gambia has prohibited the consumption of all paracetamol syrups and advised citizens to take pills instead.
According to Mustapha Bittay, head of Gambia’s health services, the number of deaths has decreased since the prohibition, but two more have been reported in the last two weeks.
He claimed that because Gambia currently lacked a laboratory capable of evaluating the safety of medications, those medications had to be transferred elsewhere for review.
Gambia is in talks with the World Bank to secure funds for a quality-control laboratory, Bittay added.
The products “confirm that they contain inappropriate quantities of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants,” according to laboratory analysis of product samples, according to the WHO.
The symptoms of the poisonous compounds, according to the document, “may include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, the inability to pass urine, headache, changed mental status, and severe renal injury which may result in death,” among others, were listed.
E.Coli, a germ that can cause vomiting and diarrhea, was also identified in traces, according to Bittay.
Health officials in Gambia stated last month that scores of children had already away without providing a precise figure.
WHO Director Tedros Ghebreyesus stated this in a speech on Wednesday in Geneva: “The loss of these young lives is beyond heartbreaking for their families.”
The WHO said that India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation indicated that the manufacturer may have only supplied the contaminated medications to Gambia.
