On September 29, the United Nations’ public health agency informed India’s national drug regulator that it is providing technical assistance and advice to The Gambia, where children died. The contributing factor is suspected to be medicines that contain contaminated diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol. Both of them, when consumed, are ‘toxic’ to humans and can prove ‘fatal’.

Later, the global health body issued an alert that medicines such as Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup contain "unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.

The WHO also warned that to date, these four products have been identified in The Gambia only but may have been distributed, through informal markets, to other countries or regions as well. However, the country’s drug regulator said the company has manufactured and exported these products only to The Gambia.

The CDSCO's preliminary probe also found that Maiden Pharma holds a manufacturer license from the State Drug Controller. The company has permission to manufacture these products for export only, and these drugs are not sold domestically. The company has manufactured and exported these products only to The Gambia, it was found.

The drug regulator has said before exporting, medical products are tested for quality and released only once they satisfy certain criteria. It has also requested the WHO to share the report on the establishment of "causal relation" to death with the medical products in question at the earliest.

The WHO had earlier warned that all batches of the products highlighted above should be considered "unsafe" until they can be analysed by the relevant National Regulatory Authorities. The Gambian government also suspended the use of all paracetamol syrups in the country and urged people to use tablets instead. The government in September revealed that dozens of kids had died, without giving the exact number.

The Gambia

Maiden Pharma row: Firm ordered to stop cough syrup production