 | | 02-06-2009, 07:15 PM |
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Joined: Oct 2000
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| Adulterated products kill, officials in the know
Quote: POISON IN TEETHIN DRUG KILLS 84 NIGERIAN CHILDREN
LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- At least 84 Nigerian children have died after ingesting teething medicine that contained a solvent typically found in antifreeze, the country's health minister said Friday.
Some 111 babies and children have been sickened since November by the tainted batch of My Pikin, which was found to contain diethylene glycol, which is used in some antifreeze and brake fluid.
Tests on the teething formula showed high concentrations of diethylene glycol, Health Minister Babtunde Osotimehin said in a statement released Friday.
Exposure to the solvent can damage the kidney, heart and nervous system, Osotimehin said, and it can be fatal.
The dead ranged from age 2 months to 7 years, he said. "The death of any Nigerian child is a great loss to the nation," he said.
Several officials with pharmaceutical company Barewa Pharmaceutical Ltd have been charged with negligence.
And the Nigeria National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, which is investigating the issue with the Ministry of Health, has shut the drug maker down.
Former officials of the company could not be reached for comment.
The food and drugs agency has said it believes the company thought it was buying propylene glycol, a normal ingredient in the teething medicine.
The government has asked that all My Pikin teething formula be returned; however, it was not immediately clear if that had been done.
Symptoms of diethylene glycol exposure include: abdominal pain; nausea or vomiting; dizziness; drowsiness; confusion; and decreased or lack of production of urine.
| Poison in teething drug kills 84 Nigerian children - CNN.com Quote: PEANUT PLANT KNEW PRODUCT WAS TAINTED WITH SALMONELLA
(CNN) -- The Georgia company whose peanut products have been blamed for a nationwide salmonella outbreak shipped some products even though they had tested positive for the bacteria and no other tests indicated they were safe, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
Previously, Peanut Corporation of America had said it shipped products only after subsequent tests on them came back negative. Items made with its peanut products have been linked to more than 500 cases of illness, including eight deaths.
The agency said the company's management told FDA inspectors last month during an inspection of the plant that they shipped products that first had tested positive for salmonella, but only if they later had tested negative.
But, it said, "FDA determined that certain information provided by PCA management during the inspection was not consistent with the subsequent analysis of the company's records."
As a result, the agency amended its report Thursday.
"In some situations the firm received a positive salmonella test result, followed by a later negative result, and then shipped the products," said the FDA report, which was included in an e-mail to CNN. "In some other situations, the firm shipped the products [which had already tested positive] before it had received the [second] positive test results."
In some cases, it said, "no additional testing appears to have been done."
No one from the company returned a call seeking comment.
Federal authorities have initiated a criminal investigation into the company.
| FDA: Peanut plant knew product was tainted with salmonella - CNN.com __________________  Sunny "The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." avie by Jessie |
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