Indonesia Bans All Syrup Medicines After Death of 99 Children (bbc.com) 34
The deaths of nearly 100 children in Indonesia have prompted the country to suspend sales of all syrup and liquid medication. From a report: It comes just weeks after a cough syrup in The Gambia was linked to the deaths of nearly 70 children. Indonesia said some syrup medicine was found to contain ingredients linked to acute kidney injuries (AKI), which have killed 99 young children this year. It is not clear if the medicine were imported or locally produced. On Thursday, Indonesian health officials said they had reported around 200 cases of AKI in children, most of who were aged under five. Earlier this month, the The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global alert over four cough syrups that were linked to the deaths of almost 70 children in The Gambia. The WHO found the syrups used there - made by an Indian pharmaceutical company - contained "unacceptable amounts" of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. The syrups have been "potentially linked with acute kidney injuries", said the organisation. Indonesia's Health Minister on Thursday said the same chemical compounds were also found in some medicines used locally.
Indian death syrup (Score:4, Funny)
ANTIFREEZE?!? (Score:1)
wtf....
Re: ANTIFREEZE?!? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting.
Re: (Score:2)
You can kill your neighbor's cat with antifreeze (ethylene glycol). Just leave a bowl out on your property.
Re: (Score:3)
It just amazes me that there are people who are so horrible that they would do this for a few bucks, and at the same time so stupid they think they'll get away with it. A few years ago some company in Europe substituted an industrial lubricant for low quality olive oil because it was cheaper, somehow thinking that people would never connect the dead consumers with their product.
Re: (Score:3)
Makes things taste sweet. The stuff was found in some European wines 3 (?) decades ago. About 30g or so kill an adult.
"Gambia" or "The Gambia"? (Score:2, Informative)
Wonder if it was related to Lean/Purp/Drank/Walk ? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What the article does mention- it's right there in the Slashdot summary, so you don't even need to click through- is that the syrups contained "unacceptable" levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. Those are both toxic and are almost certainly the reason it's so deadly. So no, this isn't because idiots are mixing drugs; it's because the drugs people are getting are not fit for use. Preventing this kind of thing is exactly why richer countries have strong regulatory agencies like the FDA.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I don't think the distinction between lack of regulation and failure of the regulatory body is practically significant. Real world regulation requires not just writing laws and regulations but ensuring they are adequately enforced. That means ensuring regulatory agencies have adequate staff and funding. It also means backing them up when they try to enforce laws against the rich and well connected.
Writing laws but failing to give regulators the support they need is actually worse than never passing the
Re: (Score:2)
In fact, the impetus for passing the the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (which gave the FDA actual authority with teeth) was a batch of Elixir Sulfanilamide that was formulated with diethylene glycol killing a number of children.
Re: (Score:2)
Indonesia isn't India.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Why not make it mandatory? (Score:2)
Check your answer here in table 7. [canada.ca]
Hint: low double digits ðY£
Re: (Score:2)
How about looking at the data for the US. Since the pandemic began, 1494 children 0-18 have died from Covid-19. You can spin that any way you want, but that's a lot of children dying from a disease you suggest doesn't need to be taken seriously.
https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Prov... [cdc.gov]
History repeats itself (Score:2)
Re: History repeats itself (Score:3)
There is an interesting book on sulfa drugs that discusses this. My recollection is that the FDA lacked the authority to withdraw deadly drugs --but the FTC could ban the sale because it was sold as a tincture and had the wrong amount of alcohol to be sold as such.
That this happened so quickly in different countries suggests more to the story (which I have not coughed on).
Re:History repeats itself (Score:5, Interesting)
To be clear, it did not actually lead to the creation of the FDA, just the creation of the modern FDA. The story is actually even more interesting than that. Basically, it turned out that the FDA of the time had no legal authority to go after literal deadly poison being sold as medicine. What they did have is authority over mislabeling. Fortunately, the name of the medicine was _Elixir_ Sulfanilamide and, by definition, an elixir had an alcohol base not a diethylene glycol one. That gave them the legal hook they needed and the entire FDA mobilized to track down every last dose that had been sold. Not just people who normally worked in the field, they were sending office workers out to basically be detectives in the field. It was in the post-mortem of that incident that the need for an expanded role and jurisdiction for the FDA was recognized and legislation was passed that basically created the modern FDA. After that incident, the FDA and its people looked downright heroic to the public which pretty much made the legislation impossible not to pass.
It really was a big effort too. Back then there were a lot of travelling sales people who travelled with their stock. Many of them would not properly record who they had sold to. Not to mention that many doctors would not admit to having prescribed/purchased/distributed the medicine. The shame of having handed out medicine that killed or maimed (organ damage, blindness) patients (mostly children) was too much for them. I believe there were a number of suicides from it from doctors who had prescribed it.
All of this happened in the first place because Sulfanilamide was a success in solid form and Massengill wanted a syrup form to help capture the child market (why so many of the victims were children). One of their chemists discovered that it dissolved well in diethylene glycol, which is quite sweet despite being poisonous and thought he had found the perfect thing. While this was close to a decade before material safety data sheets, a little research should have shown that it was a poison. No safety testing was done. In the end, the chemist who came up with it killed himself. Dr. Massengill himself arrogantly proclaimed that they had done nothing wrong and the company paid a small fine for labelling the product an "elixir" when it didn't contain ethanol.
Re: (Score:1)
Some medications are required to be in suspension (Score:2)
So there is no tablet or capsule form of the medication. If it cannot be administered in liquid form, then it cannot be administered at all.
I can see this being.... problematic for certain health issues.
So, remember this one (Score:2)
So no pepto-bismol either? (Score:2)
Indian drugs (Score:2)
The vast majority of pharmaceuticals sold in the US are manufactured in India. Over the years there have been many scandals of poor quality control. FDA hardly never inspects these plants, and when it does, gives long advance notice.
This is bad, and will lead to big trouble in the US. It is entirely driven by cost -- some drugs are so cheap to be laughable. E.g., I just paid $0.73 for 30 pills of a common drug. Because my co-pay is $5, this means that this actually cost the pharmacy $0.73, including a p