A worldwide health alert has been issued with a ban on selling cough syrup and liquid medicine in some areas after hundreds of children across the globe died.
The death of nearly 100 children in Indonesia has prompted the government to ban sales of all syrup and liquid medicine prescriptions and over-the-counter sales.
It comes just weeks after a cough syrup in Gambia was linked to the deaths of nearly 70 children.
Following the tragic news, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a medical product alert relating to four contaminated cough syrups in Gambia that have caused acute kidney injuries and are linked to the deaths.
The four cough and cold syrup medicines produced by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited, in India were found to have "unacceptable amounts" of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.
WHO is conducting further investigation with the company and regulatory authorities in India, said WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Indonesia's Health Minister on Thursday said the same chemical compounds were also found in some medicines used locally.
"Some syrups that were used by AKI child patients under five were proven to contain ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol that were not supposed to be there, or of very little amount," said Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
Indonesia's health ministry received 206 reported cases from 20 provinces with 99 deaths, according to health ministry spokesperson Syahril Mansyur.
Most of the cases reported in Indonesia involved children aged under 18, mainly toddlers under five years old, the ministry said.
Indonesian authorities have so far not disclosed the brands or types of syrup medicines linked to sick children and one epidemiologist said the true death toll could be even higher than reported.
Gambian health officials and Red Cross workers are now going door to door, as well as to pharmacies and markets, searching for medicines.
So far, more than 16,000 products have been located and destroyed.
"She could not eat anything and she was oozing blood from her mouth and nose," Keita, a 33-year-old Gambian carwash attendant, told AFP, recounting his daughter's suffering.
He continued: "President Barrow should sack the health minister, but instead of sacking him, he was praising the minister."
