Panic over killer baby teething mixture

At least, 25 children aged between four months and three years, have so far died in some parts of the country after taking an allegedly contaminated drug, MyPikin teething mixture.
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Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, Prof. Dora Akunyili
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Our Correspondent

The suspected teething mixture
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Our Correspondent

The suspected teething mixture.

The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Dora Akunyili, who disclosed this at a news conference in Lagos on Tuesday, said 15 children died at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba alone.

According to her, eight children died in the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, while two died at the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

THE PUNCH had on Monday reported exclusively that LUTH was investigating the deaths of 10 children in the hospital. Doctors in the hospital suspected that the deaths were caused by the teething mixture.

Akunyili also told journalists that the premises of the manufacturer of the drug, Barewa Pharmaceutical Limited, in Akowonjo, a surburb of Lagos, had been shut by the agency.

Giving a breakdown of the morbidity associated with the incident, the director-general said that ”seven paediatric patients within the ages of one to three years were referred to the UCH from the hospitals in Lagos.”

According to her, ”the seven toddlers had renal failure linked to administration of MyPikin.” She added that two out of the seven died.

Akunyili, who is also a ministerial nominee, stated that 20 toddlers had been admitted to LUTH over the case in the last two weeks.

NAFDAC, according to her, had started mopping up all batches of the drug.

The director-general disclosed that the agency was informed about the incident by a pharmacist at ABUTH last Wednesday.

She said, “As at November 20, 2008, 11 cases were reported at ABUTH, out of which eight died and three still on admission.”

Akunyili added that an eight-month-old baby who was on admission at ABUTH had not been passing urine for the past six days.

She explained that fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and inability to pass urine were the symptoms of the children who had been taking the drug.

Akunyili stated that the agency gathered that LUTH was aware of the cases of fever, diarrhoea and kidney failure among the affected children since November 3, 2008.

She, however, lamented that except ABUTH, none of the hospitals where the incident occurred reported it to NAFDAC.

Akunyili said, “It is unfortunate that the first incident occurred over three weeks ago in LUTH and NAFDAC just found out about it yesterday (Monday) when we visited LUTH during the course of our investigation.

“This is a public emergency that requires the collective action and cooperation of all health care providers, the media and general public in averting the looming danger facing millions of our innocent children and parents.”

But at the news conference, Akunyili stated that the laboratory analysis of the suspected drug has revealed that a chemical, diethylene glycol, was the cause of the deaths.

According to an online medical dictionary, cancenweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgibin, diethylene glycol is an organic solvent chemically related to ethylene glycol.

Upon metabolic conversion, it becomes oxalic acid, which is toxic to the kidney.

Commenting on the incident, the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Akin Osibogun, absolved the hospital of negligence for not reporting it to NAFDAC.

He stated that the hospital had reported the incident to its supervising ministry, the Federal Ministry of Health, which has an epidemiology department.

According to him, the epidemics that are reported to NAFDAC include those that are related to drugs.

The expert stated that such an illness could be caused by infections.

“It is still premature to say conclusively that it is caused by the teething mixture,” Osibogun said.

Also, the authorities of the UCH denied that any child died in the hospital as a result of consumption of the teething mixture.

The Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital, Dr. Adeniyi Adenipekun said, “Nobody died in this hospital as a result of their consumption of any teething mixture.”

However, in Abuja, the Minister of Health, Dr. Mohammed Lawal, on Tuesday ordered investigations into the incident.

He said already about 33 cases had resulted in the deaths of children at LUTH, ABUTH and UCH.

The minister, who disclosed this at a news conference, said he had directed NAFDAC and experts from the ministry to investigate the incident and report back to him.

He also directed parents to stop using teething mixtures and syrups from now on, until government could ascertain their efficacy.

He said, ”So far, cases of 20 children between the ages of four months and two years were reported at LUTH with 14 deaths. One of the children was reported to have recovered and has been discharged, while two others were discharged against medical advice and there is no further information on the outcome of these two cases.”

According to him, as the number of cases increase, it was obvious that this was a likely epidemic.

Lawal urged parents to use paracetamol tablets instead of teething mixtures and syrups, especially the suspected MyPikin.

He said the ministry was collaborating with the World Health Organisation on the matter, while NAFDAC would find the root cause of the epidemic.

A similar incident had occurred in Nigeria in 1991 when a certain paracetamol brand killed many children. It was later traced to contamination of the product at a pharmacy.

Meanwhile, two Lagos-based lawyers, Ms. Carol Ajie and Mr. Festus Keyamo, on Tuesday, said the parents of the kids that died after using the alleged contaminated teething mixture could obtain legal redress.

They spoke in separate interviews with one of our correspondents in Lagos.

Ajie said, “The parents can sue the firm. They are perfectly in order to sue the firm for damages arising from professional negligence.”

Keyamo said the parents were entitled to four remedies.

He said, “The parents can sue for tort of negligence and demand damages from the firm for breaching its duty of care.

“They can also sue the errant firm under the Sale of Goods Law for selling unmerchantable product.

“The parents can further report to the law enforcement agencies like NAFDAC, Police, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria for the firm’s criminal responsibility under the Act of the agencies.

“They can also come under Ubi jus ubi remedium. In other words, they can go to court and say that where there is a wrong, there is a remedy.”