In Indonesia, fatality due to Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) has gone to 133, mostly children less than five-years-old. Health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said, “We have identified 241 cases of acute kidney injury in 22 provinces, with 133 fatalities.”
An unexplained rise in AKI-related deaths since January this year prompted Indonesian health authorities to investigate the matter. It revealed the presence of harmful substances in medicinal syrups administered to young children.
Indonesia’s Food and Drug Agency identified five locally-made syrups with more than permissible levels of ethylene glycol (EG), diethylene glycol (DEG), and ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE). Health minister Sadkin confirmed that these substances caused AKI deaths.
The food and drug agency has ordered the pharma companies to withdraw them from the shelves and destroy the remaining stocks. Also, suspended the sale and prescription of all syrup-based medicines temporarily. However, authorities could narrow down the ban to 102 syrup medicines, as these drugs with traces of the harmful substances were found in the affected children’s homes.
Fatalities by Acute Kidney Injury among kids in Indonesia are similar to the death of 70 children in the Gambia due to paracetamol syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals in its Indian facility at Sonipat, Haryana. After WHO flagged these drugs, the Indian drug regulator ordered a probe and suspension of the said unit. Several Indian states have ordered a recall of similar Cough syrups in the market and are reviewing their safety.
The Indonesian health authorities said they tested an antidote from Singapore, and it is improving AKI in some patients. So it is likely to procure more of the antidote to distribute across the country.
Image: Tatan Syuflana/AP/Aljazeera