Health Department discovers drugs with ingredients linked to fatal kidney damage – Society

Some medicinal syrups available in Indonesia contained ingredients linked to fatal acute kidney injury (ARI) in children, its health minister said on Thursday, as he investigated a spike in cases and 99 child deaths this year .

The Ministry of Health has temporarily banned the sale of all syrup-based drugs and has scrutinized paracetamol syrups used locally to treat fever in children that contain diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.

The Gambian government is also investigating deaths of children with ARI linked to paracetamol syrups after 70 deaths in that country. The syrups were made by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which India said it was investigating.

The Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency said these particular products were not available locally.

Ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol were detected in products found in the homes of some of the patients, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Thursday, without specifying how many.

“Some syrups used by children with ARIs under five years of age have been shown to contain ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol that weren’t supposed to be there, or in very small amounts,” he said. he declared.

On Thursday, Indonesia identified 206 cases of children with ARI, including 99 deaths this year. Budi said the actual number of cases could be higher than reported.

A Department of Health spokesman declined to say in how many child AKI patients the ingredients were detected, citing the ongoing investigation.