Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6325

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Publication type: news

Power M.
Panama mystery illness traced to adulterated drugs
Reuters 2006 Oct 12

Full text:

Panama mystery illness traced to adulterated drugs

By Mike Power
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) Oct 12 – A mystery illness that has killed 21
people in Panama was caused by government-made cough and anti-allergy
syrups likely contaminated with a toxic chemical on purpose, officials
said on Wednesday.

Health Minister Camilo Alleyne said generic sugar-free cough syrups made
in a government lab, some containing anti-histamine, were mixed with
diethylene glycol, an alcohol used as a coolant in brake fluids and
hydraulic systems.

Speaking to reporters, he ruled out human error, saying it was likely
the medicines had been tampered with maliciously.

The sugar-free syrups, which are popular with diabetics and produced in
a local lab by Panama’s social security system, have been removed from
clinics and the government has warned people not to use them.

Twenty-one people have died from the illness so far and 13 are sick,
according to the latest Health Ministry figures.

Alleyne said the diethylene glycol was discovered with the help of the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration was assisting studies.

He said the chemical, which is not intended for human consumption,
causes the same symptoms as those displayed by the people who died —
acute kidney failure and death.

“This is a substance that should not be present in any way among the
products or medicines,” said Alleyne. “It is a toxic substance and
definitely should not be found in any solution or preparation in the
laboratory, or any medicine.”

The illness starts with nausea, fever, weakness and diarrhea and quickly
progresses to acute kidney failure, partial paralysis and death. Police
are investigating the poisoning.

Social security system director Rene Luciani told reporters the syrups
were made using special dosage machines and that human hands did not
touch them at any time during the process.

“This is a foreign substance, foreign to the production process,” he
said. “The presence of this substance indicates that the product may
have been tampered with.”

The illness has mainly struck men over age 60 being treated for high
blood pressure, kidney disorders and diabetes.

Earlier this week the government recalled 2 million tablets of popular
high blood pressure medicine lisinopril after noticing that nine people
who had fallen sick had taken it.

Scientists from the government and the medicine’s maker, Madrid-based
Normon SA, tested the drug and found no toxic agents