Tainted teething drug kills 25 children

Teething formula tainted with a toxic thickening agent has killed 25 children in Nigeria, prompting regulators to clear it from shelves and shut down its manufacturer.

The national food and drug administration was scouring Africa’s most populous country for about 3,000 bottles of My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture, which had been inadvertently tainted with diethylene glycol, the agency’s head said.

Eleven other children were being treated after ingesting the compound meant to soothe a teething infant’s sore gums, Doris Akunyili said.

“This makes me so miserable. I’m very depressed,” said Ms Akunyili. “I found it honestly very pitiable that Nigerian babies are dying this way.”

The afflicted children were stricken with fever, convulsions, diarrhoea, vomiting and were unable to urinate, Ms Akunyili’s agency said.

Diethylene glycol is commonly found in antifreeze and brake fluid and sometimes used illegally as a cheaper alternative to glycerin, which thickens toothpaste. Exposure can cause kidney and liver damage over time. Akunyili said the children died of kidney failure.

The contaminant has been implicated in poisoning cases around the world, including in Panama, where at least 116 people died after taking contaminated cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment made at a government laboratory.

The Nigerian agency said that the manufacturer, Lagos-based Barewa Pharmaceuticals, had been closed and the formula removed from shelves across the massive nation of 140 million people.

Nigeria has been plagued by tainted, fake or untested drugs since it gained independence from Britain in 1960.

Ms Akunyili said 200 babies died in 1990 in similar circumstances.