Cough syrups may have caused the deaths of 66 children in Gambia – US Centers for Disease Control
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that cough syrups are likely to be responsible for the deaths of children in The Gambia. Reuters writes about this with reference to the CDC report. Contaminated cough syrups imported into Gambia almost certainly caused the deaths of 66 children from acute kidney injury, according to an investigation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Gambian scientists. A new investigation suggests that toxin-contaminated drugs imported into The Gambia caused acute kidney damage in 78 children. Photo: Elnur/Depositphotos Most of them were under the age of 2, and 66 of them died between June and September 2022. Since then, four more children have died, and the official number of victims has increased to 70. The authors of the report, who conducted the study, studied the medical records of the patients and conducted interviews with their parents and guardians. They noted that drug tests, the wide geographic distribution of cases, and the fact that the disease has not spread to adults point to the presence of a toxin in the cough syrup. The Gambia has had several poisonings related to diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol in countries such as Haiti and Nigeria, but the report says this is the first known case where the poisoning was caused by imported drugs rather than domestically produced drugs. “This case of poisoning highlights the potential risks to public health associated with inadequate quality management in the export of pharmaceuticals,” the report said. The link between the children’s deaths and the medication was first discovered in October 2022, when the World Health Organization sent out a warning that four cough syrups produced by the Indian company Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd contained a known toxin – diethylene glycol, or ethylene glycol. Maiden has denied that its drugs caused the deaths in Gambia, and the Indian government has said that testing of the syrups found no contamination. Production at the plant was halted in October, but the company is now trying to resume work. Recall that Indonesia stopped selling all syrups and liquid medicines after the death of nearly 100 children and an inexplicable sharp increase in cases of acute kidney injury. Read also: Cough in a child: what to do and when to go to the doctor? Instruction of the Ministry of Health
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