The deaths of 66 children in The Gambia, West Africa, have been linked to contaminated medicines from India. The children, who all died of acute kidney failure, had all consumed cough syrups produced by Maiden Pharmaceuticals, a company based in Haryana State, India. Another 81 children are being treated in hospitals for kidney problems linked to the products.
The contamination was not detected immediately as The Gambia does not have a laboratory capable of testing pharmaceuticals, with doctors initially suspecting a range of illnesses, including Malaria and Meningitis. Only after samples were sent to a laboratory in neighbouring Senegal was it discovered that four paracetamol-based cough syrups produced by Maiden Pharmaceuticals, Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup, all contained diethylene glycol, a sweat-tasting chemical which has been linked to several previous poisoning incidents.
Following the discovery Police and Red Cross workers in The Gambia carried out a door-to-door search for these drugs, eventually confiscating over 16 000 products. The World Health Organization has issued a global alert for these drugs, as, while they were only ever officially exported to The Gambia, there is a danger that they may have reached other countries, particularly those in West Africa, by informal routes.
Opposition politicians and families of the deceased children have questioned the delays in tracing the cause of the deaths, claiming that the government should have reacted more quickly once children began to die. The Gambian government has defended its actions by pointing out that the deaths did not immediately show up against a high child mortality rate in the summer months, already made worse by extensive flooding this year, with an associated jump in the number of cases of water-borne diseases. The Gambian government has now announced plans to open an laboratory capable of carrying out quality assays on medicines.
In India, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (India's national regulatory body for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and medical devices) and Haryana State Government have began an investigation into the activities of Maiden Pharmaceuticals, with samples of the four cough syrups having been sent to the regional pharmaceuticals testing lab in Chandigarh. Maiden Pharmaceuticals has previously been accused of selling substandard medicines by several Indian states, including Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, and Kerala, and its products have been banned in Vietnam over similar concerns.
Paracetamol-based cough syrups have been phased out in India, following an incident in 2020 in which 17 children died of diethylene glycol poisoning in Jammu and Kashmir State. They have been replaced with liquid paracetamol suspensions, in which diethylene glycol is easier to detect.
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