Vivid News 24: The World Health Organization issued an urgent “call to action” to nations on Monday to prevent, identify, and address instances of fabricated medical reports. This comes after several fatalities associated with the use of specific cough syrups were documented in the Gambia, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan.
These cough medicines, some of which were produced by Indian companies Maiden Pharmaceuticals and Marion Biotech, have been connected to fatalities in the Gambia and Uzbekistan, respectively.
It stated that over the course of the previous four months, several nations have reported instances of suspected contamination involving children’s over-the-counter cough syrups that included high concentrations of diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG).
More than 300 people, most of whom were young children under the age of five, died as a result of these instances, according to the WHO, which originated in at least seven different nations. According to the organization, the pollutants are dangerous compounds and shouldn’t ever be present in medicines.
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It went on to say that these pollutants can be lethal even in little doses. Following these reports, WHO issued medical product warnings urging the identification and eradication of these items from circulation, greater supply chain surveillance, and prompt communication to WHO if these substandard products are found in-country.
The organization has also urged regulators and governments to find these medical products and remove them from circulation, to ensure that all medical products sold in their respective markets have received competent authorities’ approval, to allocate adequate resources to increase risk-based inspections of manufacturing facilities, to increase market surveillance, and to enact and enforce laws and legal measures to combat the production, distribution, and use of substandard and counterfeit medicines.
Additionally, it required manufacturers to only buy pharmaceutical-grade excipients from reputable and qualified suppliers, test all supplies thoroughly after receiving them, guarantee the quality of their products, and maintain accurate and thorough records of all material purchases, testing results, manufacturing processes, and distribution.
The WHO further requested that medical product suppliers and distributors look for physical signs of tampering and signs of medication falsification, distribute only products that have been approved by appropriate authorities, maintain accurate and thorough records regarding the medicines and their sale and distribution, and hire qualified personnel to handle the medications.
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