WHO warns Nigeria, other countries on 'Naturcold' contaminated cough syrup

livus, 10 months ago

If anyone can post this over at africa@baraza.africa that would be good. I can't seem to do it.

tallwookie, 10 months ago

why would you put a chemical solvent in cough syrup? ah, here’s why --> www.fraken.cn

livus, 10 months ago

Sounds like it gets used by unscrupulous people instead of PEG. From wikipedia:

Because of its adverse effects on humans, diethylene glycol is not allowed for use in food and drugs[9] (in many countries). The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations allows no more than 0.2% of diethylene glycol in polyethylene glycol when the latter is used as a food additive.[10] The Government of Australia does not allow DEG as a food additive due to its toxicity; it is only allowed at less than 0.25% w/w of DEG as an impurity of polyethylene glycol (PEG)[11] even in toothpaste.[12]

133arc585, 10 months ago

Water is a “chemical solvent”. So is alcohol (ethanol), which is in nearly every cough syrup.

In fact, the solvent they used is extremely closely related to commonly used and acceptable solvents, namely propylene glycol (and polyethylene glycol), which you likely consume often. The issue is that (di)ethylene glycol has most of the useful chemical properties here, while generally being cheaper. This has happened often in the past in fact: products meant for human consumption that called for propylene glycol have had that replaced by (di)ethylene glycol as a cost cutting measure and that has lead to cases similar to this.

The real problem is cost cutting without safety checks and oversight, not “chemicals”. The article even says as much:

It advised regulatory agencies to increase surveillance and diligence within the supply chains of countries and regions likely to be affected by the products.

livus, 10 months ago

Yeah, the problem is governments not having the resources to test everything properly.

In The Gambia (where they had 70 tainted cough syrup deaths last year) bereaved parents are suing the government for not checking adequetely.

133arc585, 10 months ago

It’s a tough situation.

One could argue that if they don’t have the resources to test drugs they produce then they shouldn’t produce them. But that’s a very privileged statement: if it doesn’t have the resources to test what it’s making it likely doesn’t have the resources to import drugs either. By making drugs for domestic consumption they’re able to help more people than they would otherwise. The issue, obviously, comes from bad actors in the supply chain. If there’s money to be made, people will do bad things, and I’m not sure how to prevent that. You can punish after the fact, but when people’s (especially kids’) lives are lost before you can put a stop to it, that’s hardly an acceptable solution.

livus, 10 months ago

they don’t have the resources to test drugs they produce

They did not produce these drugs.

The cough syrup that poisoned all the kids in The Gambia was made in India.

The poisonous 'Naturcold' cough syrup in the article, was labelled produced in United Kingdom but turns out the company name on the paperwork and boxes is fake.

I don't think the answer is "if you don't have testing resources then stop allowing medicine to enter your country". That would lead to even more suffering and death.

Synthead, 10 months ago

“Diethylene glycol was detected in samples of Naturcold as much as 28.6 per cent.

“The acceptable limit for Diethylene Glycol is no more than 0.10 per cent,” it said.

Damn. That’s horrible.

livus, 10 months ago

Yeah it's going to kill children for sure.

A similar thing happened elsewhere back in January and 300 kids died.

Synthead, 10 months ago

“Diethylene glycol was detected in samples of Naturcold as much as 28.6 per cent.

“The acceptable limit for Diethylene Glycol is no more than 0.10 per cent,” it said.

cameroonnewsagency.com/naturcold-syrup-kills-six-…

Damn. That’s horrible.