The World Health Organization called on Tuesday (January 24) for countries, manufacturers, and suppliers to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year.
In 2022, more than 300 children - mainly under 5 - in Gambia, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan allegedly died of acute kidney injury in deaths associated with contaminated medicines, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva.
The medicines, over-the-counter cough syrups, had high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.
"These contaminants are toxic chemicals used as industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that can be fatal even in small amounts and should never be found in medicines," Tedros said.
The WHO sent specific product alerts in October and earlier this month, asking for the medicines to be removed from shelves for cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals and Marion Biotech, which are linked with deaths in Gambia and Uzbekistan, respectively.
Last year, it also warned about cough syrups made by four Indonesian manufacturers, PT Yarindo Farmatama, PT Universal Pharmaceutical, PT Konimex, and PT AFI Pharma, that were sold domestically.
The companies involved have either denied that their products have been contaminated or declined to comment while investigations are ongoing.
The WHO reiterated its call for the products flagged above to be removed from circulation and called more widely for countries to ensure that competent authorities approve any medicines for sale. It also asked governments and regulators to assign resources to inspect manufacturers, increase market surveillance and take action where required.
It called on manufacturers to only buy raw ingredients from qualified suppliers, test their products more thoroughly, and keep records of the process. In addition, suppliers and distributors should check for signs of falsification and only distribute or sell medicines authorized for use, Tedros said.
The WHO also said that unidentified assailants in eastern Mali had abducted a doctor working for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr. Mahamadou Diawara was taken from his car on Monday (January 23) in Menaka, an eastern region where jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State are active.
Assailants also attacked his driver but left him behind.
WHO "is working with local authorities to investigate the abduction and ensure our colleague's quick return to his family," Tedros said.
Diawara was sent to Menaka at the start of 2020. He has led efforts to provide medical care to remote communities at risk of violence.
Mali is battling a rampant Islamist insurgency that hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in the north in 2012.
Militants have seized swathes of territory across the Sahel, killing thousands and uprooting close to 2 million people, despite costly international efforts to quash them.
Tedros said that a World Health Organization committee will meet on January 27 to consider whether the COVID-19 pandemic still represents a global emergency three years after it was first declared.
The Emergency Committee advises the WHO Director-General, who ultimately calls on whether an outbreak represents a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the U.N. agency's highest alert level.
Several leading scientists and WHO advisers say it may be too early to declare the end of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency phase because of high levels of infections in China, which dismantled its zero-COVID policy last month.
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