In a message to reporters, the spokesman noted that, as of October 18, the authorities had counted 99 fatalities and 206 injuries related to this medical condition.
This came after officials in the Gambia health sector said that about 70 children had died due to acute renal insufficiency, after eating a syrup of paracetamol sold locally and used to treat fever.
Four drinking cough remedies made by Meidin Pharmacriats, a New Delhi-based company, and marketed in the Gambia, were found to contain high concentrations of two ethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.
The substances in all drinking drugs for children are now forbidden, notwithstanding the Indonesian Food and Drug Administration’s claim that the items are not locally accessible.
The World Health Organization, the Indonesian Pediatric Association, and members from the Ministry of Health have organised an expert committee to look into the high rates of serious renal failure among children, the health authorities announced last week.
The Indonesian Ministry of Health said it was talking to experts from the World Health Organization investigating cases that were monitored in Gambia.
The Ministry of Health requested hospitals to gather all the medications that parents have given their kids in order to undertake toxin detection tests in a letter that was sent out on October 18 and obtained by Reuters.
In Indonesia this year, acute renal failure caused 99 paediatric deaths.
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