WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “The loss of these young lives is beyond heart-breaking for their families”
(Picture: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)The WHO (World Health Organisation) has issued a global alert over four cough syrups. They warned that they could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in the Gambia.
It said that the syrups have been “potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children,” and warned that their use may result in serious injury or death, especially among children.
The WHO also added that the products were manufactured by Indian company Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which had failed to provide guarantees about their safety. The WHO has been asked by Indian officials to share evidence of the link between the syrups and the deaths.
The medicines were identified by WHO as:
- Promethazine Oral Solution
- Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup
- Makoff Baby Cough Syrup
- Magrip N Cold Syrup
The four products had been identified in the Gambia, but “may have been distributed, through informal markets, to other countries or regions”, according to WHO.
The WHO’s intervention came after medical authorities in the Gambia - a popular tourist destination - detected an increase in cases of acute kidney injury among children under the age of five in late July.
Since then, the Gambia’s government suspended the use of all paracetamol syrups and is urging people to use tablets instead. The WHO said that laboratory analysis of samples of the products “confirms that they contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants”.
The substances are toxic and their effects “can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state, and acute kidney injury, which may lead to death,” it added.
Speaking in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “The loss of these young lives is beyond heart-breaking for their families.”
The WHO said India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation indicated that the contaminated medications may have only been supplied to the Gambia, the AFP news agency reports, quoting an email from the UN health agency.
However, the WHO added that “global exposure” was possible as the “manufacturer may have used the same contaminated material in other products and distributed them locally or exported,” them, the agency reports.
