FivePharmaNews / 70 Children Dead in The Gambia

Reports have emerged over the past week of the deaths of 70 children from acute kidney injury in The Gambia, linked to four cough syrups made in India and imported into the West African country via a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company, the Gambian police said in a preliminary investigation report on Tuesday 11th OCT 2022.?The World Health Organization (WHO) investigators had already found "unacceptable" levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which can be toxic, in four products made by an India based manufacturer.

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Gambian authorities launched a probe in September of this year after doctors in July 2022 noticed that a number of children developed symptoms of kidney failure after taking a locally-sold paracetamol syrup used to treat fevers.?Kidney injuries have caused 70 child deaths, according to the government, which has suspended sales of all brands of paracetamol cough syrup and recalled it from pharmacies and households.?The contaminated syrups have so far only been distributed in The Gambia, although they may have arrived elsewhere through informal markets.

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"We are all victims of the malpractice from manufacturers. As a country, we don't have all the resources and the personnel. We don't have a drug testing laboratory," Health Minister Ahmad Lamin Samateh said last week.?International partners will help the country tighten medicine monitoring systems and import regulations, he added, noting that the government was taking action against the manufacturers of the medicinal products.?It is believed the products originated in India.

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Of particular note in this story is that one of the contaminants in the medicines has been identified as Diethylene Glycol, this was also the deadly contaminant that led to the deaths of 107 people back in 1937 in the US, see picture at the top of this article.?The public outcry caused by this incident led to the passing of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which significantly increased the Food and Drug Administration's powers to regulate drugs.

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Tragically, the vagaries of global wealth distribution have meant that a lesson learned in the US 85 years ago has not led to appropriate measures being put in place in poorer countries.?This week 70 children in The Gambia paid the ultimate price.