The World Health Organization urgently appealed for countries to prevent, detect and respond to cases of substandard and falsified medical products, citing recent reports of instances of children’s cough syrups with confirmed or suspected contamination.
“Over the past four months, countries have reported on several incidents of over-the-counter cough syrups for children with confirmed or suspected contamination with high levels of diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG),” said the WHO.
“The cases are from at least seven countries, associated with more than 300 fatalities in three of these countries.” The WHO said most fatalities are young children aged less than five. Among the countries cited by the WHO are Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.
The WHO called on regulators and governments to detect and remove from their respective markets any substandard medical products identified in the WHO medical alerts as potential causes of death and disease.
The WHO also called on manufacturers of medicines to only purchase pharmaceutical grade excipients from qualified and bona fide suppliers and to conduct comprehensive testing of supplies before use in manufacturing finished products.
