The World Health Organization has issued a global alert regarding cough medicines that may be linked – according to the organization – to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia.
These drugs “are likely to be associated with acute kidney injury and the death of 66 children,” the organization added.
The World Health Organization added that the products were made by an Indian company, Medicin Pharmaceutical, but it did not provide guarantees regarding their safety.
The BBC has contacted the company for comment, but has not yet responded.
But the Indian Ministry of Health said it had launched an investigation following the organization’s announcement.
The Indian government says it has asked the World Health Organization to share the evidence it has on the link between medicines and child deaths.
The controversy is seen as a blow to India’s image as a “pharmacy of the world” that supplies medicines to all continents.
The World Health Organization said the medicines are promethazine oral solution, Covixmalin children’s cough syrup, Makov’s Children’s Cough Syrup, and Magrib Cough Syrup.
In the warning posted on its website, the World Health Organization added that the four products were found in The Gambia, but “may have been distributed through informal markets to other countries or regions.”
And it warned that its use might lead to serious injuries or death, especially among children.
The WHO’s intervention came following medical authorities in The Gambia – a popular tourist destination – discovered an increase in acute kidney injury cases among children under five in late July.
The Gambian government has since stopped using all paracetamol drinks, urging people to use the tablets instead.
The World Health Organization said that laboratory analysis of samples of the products “confirm that they contain unacceptable amounts of ethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are contaminants.”
She added that these toxic substances can include “abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to urinate, headache, altered mental status and acute kidney injury that may lead to death.”
Gambian health officials said last month that dozens of children had died, without giving an exact figure.
Speaking in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “The loss of these children’s lives is heartbreaking for their families.”
The organization indicated that the Central Medicines Control Authority in India indicated that the manufacturer may have supplied the contaminated drugs only to The Gambia, according to Agence France-Presse, citing an email from the United Nations health agency.
