By Spy Uganda
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert Wednesday over four cough and cold syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals in India, warning they could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in Gambia.
The UN health agency also cautioned the contaminated medications may have been distributed outside of the West African country, with global exposure โpossibleโ.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters the four cold and cough syrups in question โhave been potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among childrenโ.
โThe loss of these young lives is beyond heartbreaking for their families.โ
Tedros said WHO was also โconducting further investigation with the company and regulatory authorities in Indiaโ.
According to the medical product alert issued by WHO on Wednesday, the four products are Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup.
On Thursday, Gambian authorities began collecting paracetamol and promethazine syrup from rural households in the West Coast Region and Upper River Region.
A Gambian health ministry investigation, which began in July and is ongoing, also cited the E. coli bacteria as a possible cause of the acute kidney failure outbreak.
โThe preliminary results from the ongoing investigation indicate that it is most probably the paracetamol and promethazine syrups that caused the acute kidney injury cases in this outbreak,โ Abubacarr Jagne, the nephrologist leading the health ministryโs investigation, told the press on Wednesday.
Health authorities had on September 23 ordered a recall of all medicines containing paracetamol or promethazine syrup.
Gambia experienced its severest flooding in years in July, causing sewers and latrines to overflow.
โSince July 2022, there has been an increase in the number of severe kidney diseases with high fatality among children mainly following diarrheal diseases,โ the ministry said in a statement in September.
E.coli bacteria were found in the stools of many children, but many had also taken paracetamol syrup, it said.
โTo date, the stated manufacturer has not provided guarantees to WHO on the safety and quality of these products,โ the alert said, adding that laboratory analysis of samples of the products โconfirms that they contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminantsโ.
Those substances are toxic to humans and can be fatal, it said, adding that the toxic effect โcan include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state and acute kidney injury which may lead to deathโ.
WHO said information received from Indiaโs Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation indicated that the manufacturer had only supplied the contaminated medications to The Gambia.
โHowever, the supply of these products through informal or unregulated markets to other countries in Africa, cannot be ruled out,โ the UN agency said in an email.
โIn addition, the manufacturer may have used the same contaminated material in other products and distributed them locally or exported,โ it warned.
