Napa syrup sale suspended in B’baria as siblings die
Drug stores in Bangladesh’s eastern district of Brahmanbaria have been asked to take off their shelves a certain batch of paracetamol syrup produced by Beximco Pharmaceuticals following the reported deaths of two minor brothers after taking the drug on Thursday.
The Brahmanbaria chapter of the Chemist and Druggist Samiti sent letters to their members across the district asking them not to sell a certain batch of the syrup while authorities launched three investigations into the incident.
Police in Ashuganj, a Brahmanbaria upazila, sent for tests the seized used bottle of the syrup, marketed as Napa, after conducting postmortem of the dead children in connection with a general diary filed by them.
The deceased have been identified as Yasin, 7, and Morsalin, 4, son of Sujon Khan of Durgapur, Ashuganj were buried on Friday, reported New Age’s Brahmanbaria correspondent.
The syrup they were fed was bought by their mother from a local drug store called Ma pharmacy.
The syrup pulled off drug stores bore batch number 32113121, manufactured in December.
The families of the deceased could not be reached. But local journalists described the family as very poor not being able to afford a cell phone and the father of the kids is a brick kiln worker.
‘We want to remain on the safe side as children’s lives are at risk here,’ said Abu Kawser, vice-president of the Chemist and Druggist Samiti, Brahmanbaria, adding that they would refrain from selling the drug until authorities declared it safe.
The number of drug stores in Brahmanbaria is about 15,000, he said, adding that only 2,300 of them are licensed.
Brahmanbaria civil surgeon Akram Ullah said that the mother of the kids bought the medicine from a local unlicensed drug store around 5:00pm Thursday.
The kids were bought to the upazila health complex in Ashuganj around 7:00pm with symptoms of vomiting, he said, adding that they were referred to the district hospital immediately.
But the kids were never admitted to the district hospital and what happened later remained a mystery, he said, adding that on their way back from the hospital one of the kids died around 9:00pm.
The second kid died at home around 10:00pm.
‘The district hospital is investigating what happened at its emergency department when the victim’s family arrived there,’ said Akram.
The two other investigations are being carried out by the civil surgeon’s office and the Directorate General of Drug Administration.
Hossain Mohammad Imran, additional director, DGDA, posted in Brahmanbaria, said that one of the kids had a fever but both of them were fed the syrup.
‘We are sending paracetamol syrup samples of different batches produced by Beximco Pharmaceuticals for testing in Dhaka,’ he said.
The tragic deaths of the brothers brought back the memory of the deaths of about 2,700 children from renal failure caused by toxic paracetamol syrup between 1982 and 1992.
‘The use of toxic diethylene glycol in paracetamol syrup was responsible for so many deaths among children,’ said physician Mohammad Hanif, who identified the cause of children’s death back in the 1990s.
‘But diethylene glycol toxicity takes time. It cannot cause deaths so fast as happened in Ashuganj,’ he added.
New Age contacted several Beximco high officials over the phone for a comment on the matter. A cell phone message was sent to one of them but drew no reply.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/165212/napa-syrup-sale-suspended-in-bbaria-as-siblings-die
