99 children lost their lives due to kidney disease; All cough syrups are banned in Indonesia
JAKARTA: All cough syrups and liquid medicines have been banned in Indonesia. The Indonesian government has taken action in the context of a large increase in the death of children in the country due to kidney failure.
According to the government, 99 children have died in the country this year due to serious kidney problems caused by cough syrups. The ban was announced on Wednesday while the country’s health department was conducting an investigation.
“Since January this year till date, 206 cases and 99 deaths have been reported from 20 provinces.
Therefore, as a precaution, the ministry has asked all healthcare workers not to prescribe liquid medicines,” said Mohammad Sahril Mansoor, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, at a press conference.
The Indian company that produced the cough syrup that killed 66 children in The Gambia was black. This kind of incident is also being reported in Indonesia while the Gambian government is investigating.
Officials at Indonesia’s Food and Drug Agency said all child medicinal syrups with potentially related ingredients have been banned, although the products found in Gambia are not sold locally in the country.
Kidney disease has been reported in Indonesia since January this year. The ministry also said that more cases have been reported since the end of August.
IDAI Logs 192 Cases of Unknown Chronic Kidney Disease in 20 Provinces https://t.co/3YYUM01GuV #TempoEnglish
— Tempo English (@tempo_english) October 18, 2022
65 percent of cases are reported in Jakarta. The disease mainly affects children under the age of five,’ said the Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals’ drugs were banned in the African country of Gambia following an incident that killed 66 children.
Earlier, extensive irregularities were found in the quality control of the company’s medicines. It was concluded that the children’s kidneys were affected by substandard and infected cough syrup. The World Health Organization has also stated that dangerous diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol have been found in cough syrup.