The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls for action for countries to prevent, detect and respond to incidents of substandard and falsified medical products.

The call is contained in a statement issued by the WHO. It noted that in the past four months, countries had reported several incidents of over-the-counter cough syrups for children with confirmed or suspected contamination with high levels of diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG).

It said the cases are from at least seven countries, associated with more than 300 fatalities in three of these countries. According to it, most are young children under the age of five.

“These contaminants are toxic chemicals used as industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that can be fatal even taken in small amounts, and should never be found in medicines,” the WHO said.

It added that based on country reports, WHO has issued three global medical alerts addressing these incidents.

“The Medical Product Alert N°6/2022 on 5 October 2022 focused on the outbreak in the Gambia, Medical Product Alert N7/2022 on 6 November 2022 focused on Indonesia, and Medical Product Alert No1/2023 on 11 January 2023 focused on Uzbekistan,” it said.

It disclosed that WHO’s medical product alerts were rapidly disseminated to the national health authorities of all 194 WHO member states and that these medical product alerts requested, among other things: first, the detection and removal of contaminated medicines from circulation in the markets and increased surveillance and diligence within the supply chains of countries and regions likely to be affected.

Since these are not isolated incidents, WHO called on various key stakeholders engaged in the medical supply chain to take immediate and coordinated action. 

It called on relevant stakeholders to detect and remove from circulation in their respective markets any substandard medical products identified in the WHO medical alerts referred to above as potential causes of death and disease.

(NAN)