Gambia cough syrup deaths: US CDC concludes contaminated medicines likely to blame

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with Gambian scientists have concluded that the contaminated cough syrups imported into Gambia are likely the cause of the deaths of 66 children due to acute kidney injury.

The reportpublished in the New EnglandJournal of Medicine on Thursday strongly suggested that medicines contaminated with the toxins led to a cluster of acute kidney injuries among78 kids, and66 deaths between June and September 2022.

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The official death toll now stands at 70, after four more children died since September 2022. Most of the kids were aged under two.

The conclusions were reached after examination of medical records of patients and interviewes with parents and caregivers. It also mentioned other evidences contributing to the conclusionsuch as the tests of the medicines, the fact that the illness did not spread to adults and pointed towards a toxin agent rather than an infectious.

The links between the contaminated medicineand children'sdeaths came to light in October 2022, when the World Health Organization (WHO) raised an alert saying four cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd contain toxic levels of diethylene and ethylene glycol and should be stopped.

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Maiden has repeatedly denied that its drugs were at fault for the deaths in Gambia and even the Indian government said that the syrups did not show any contamination when it tested them.

The company might resume work. Production had been stopped in October.

There have been several poisoning linked to diethylene and ethylene glycol in the past, in countries including Haiti and Nigeria.

Since deaths in the Gambia, over 200 children died in Indonesia, and 19 in Uzbekistan, all linked to different cough syrups.

(with inputs from agencies)

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