Nigerian drug administration agency closes down pharmaceuticals
manufacturer after syrup kills 25 infants.

LAGOS, NIGERIA (NOVEMBER 26, 2008) REUTERS -
Nigeria's drug administration agency has closed down a
pharmaceuticals manufacturer in the commercial capital Lagos after
contaminated teething syrup killed 25 infants and hospitalised at least 10
more.

The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC)
said on Wednesday (November 26) tests had shown the chemical diethylene
glycol, a poisonous substance normally used in engine coolant, had triggered
kidney failure in the infants.

Head of Nigeria Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control
(Nafdac) Dora Akuyili said investigations were underway to determine how the
chemicals entered the country.

"Investigations are acutally just beginning because we must find
out where they bought it from, they must have smuggled it. We give chemical
permit in NAFDAC, giving people permission to import chemicals and we never
gave anybody permission to import dytilatelycon, which means the dytilatelycon
Barewa pharmaceuticals used was smuggled," she said.

The children died at three hospitals across Africa's most populous
nation -- the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), the UCH hospital in
the southwestern town of Ibadan and the ABUTH hospital in the northern town of
Zaria.

NAFDAC said in a statement that 'in all the recorded cases at ABUTH,
UCH and LUTH the drug common to all the patients was My Pikin baby teething
mixture.'

The agency said the symptoms of infants who had been given the drug
included diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and convulsions and that they were unable
to pass urine for days.

NAFDAC said it had first received reports of a case of possible
contamination from the Zaria hospital on Nov. 19 and that it had started
confiscating batches of the syrup two days later after carrying out tests.

Akuyili added it was important to spread the alert to private practices
in villages.
"When you are thinking of the people that are hospitalised, it is
not even necessary to put a number. What is important is to put up this alert
that all of you are going to do for us because we don't know people who are
hospitalised in village clinics. There are too many private village clinics
all over the country. Private clinics, private hospitals in most Nigerian
villages. So when you help us put out this message the doctors in these
villages will start asking the patients to stop taking this drug," she
said.

NAFDAC said it had shut down the manufacturer, Lagos-based Barewa
Pharmaceuticals. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Cough syrup from China adulterated with diethylene glycol killed at
least 115 people in Panama in 2006.
Two brands of Chinese toothpaste were banned in the Dominican Republic
in May 2007 because of fears that they contained the lethal chemical.