Medicine tied to India deaths not approved in Maldives: MFDA

MFDA today urged caution against the cough syrup that recently resulted in the deaths of around 12 children in India. 

MFDA went on to say that the cough syrup is not being brought into Maldives by those who make it nor by people who have approval to bring it in. They have advised caution regarding the medicine if it is being brought in for personal use.

As per the MFDA's announcement, the South East Asian Region Network has sent out an alert regarding three cough syrups for children that has a toxic substance by the name of "diethylene glycol".

The announcement also highlighted the fact that the three companies importing the medicine is not approved by the MFDA. It also said that the medicines have not been imported into the Maldives.

As per testing from a Madhya Pradesh state drug laboratory, out of the 19 medicines that were tested, Coldrif syrup had 46.28 percent diethylene glycol in it. However, only 0.1 percent is allowed for use in medicine.

It has come to light that Menthol Syrup has 1.3 diethylene glycol, with Menthol Syrup Relief having 0.6 percent diethylene glycol.

"In order to ascertain the safety of the medicine being imported to Maldives, especially children's medicine, the authority is always taking steps to find a solution to this issue," as was said in the announcement.

The MFDA stated that the most important step that is in place and is being implemented is to ensure there is no diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol in children's cough syrup that is being imported via laboratory analysis reports.

To clear up any information, the MFDA has requested people to call the Medicine and Therapeutic Goods Division hotline: 7200321.

Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol is an industrial chemical. 368 Indonesian children and 70 Gambian children died two years ago due to these chemicals being in certain medicines. The syrup was removed from Maldives' shelves when the incident occurred.