& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

1 more kid dies of paracetamol intake

Health minister says chemicals for tannery and rubber industries used by Rid pharmaceutical

MAHBUBA ZANNAT
Health Minister /\FM Ruhal Haque revealed yesterday use of poisonous chemicals meant for tannery and rubber industries in paracetamol syrup of Rid Pharmaceutical Company as another child died from intake of the ■medicine” brining the death toll to 25.
Addressing a project launching ceremony in the city, the minister said citing a primary probe by his ministry that the poisonous substances were found also in vitamin tablets and capsules made by Rid.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Drug Administration sealed off the Rid factory in Brahmanbaria BSCIC area after reports of 24 deaths due to renal failures upon intakes of toxin paracetamol.
As the paracetamol syrup containing poisonous Diethylene Glycol was provided to the
children across the country, some 34 children with acute renal failure were admitted to Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital over the last one and a half months
Among them 25 died, with Antu Datt, a four-year boy and son of a tea seller, being the last victim who died at Dhaka Shishu Hospital yesterday morning after remaining unconscious for five days.
Antu was suffering from acute fever, oedema and suppression of urine from July 12 and was admitted to the Dhaka Shishu Hospital on July 18 after receiving treatment at Chittagong Ma O Shishu Hospital, Chittagong Medical College Hospital and National Hospital in Chittagong.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on health ministry yesterday formed a four-member committee to look into the recent deaths of children from kidney failure after taking Rid paracetamol.
Tire committee is tasked to visit the pharmaceutical factories across tire country and report to the parliamentary body.
Sources from the drug regulatory authorities say Rid Pharmaceutical received licence in 2006 and started marketing some 12 drug items. Though it had permission of manufacturing paracetamol suspension, it started producing paracetamol syrup in the package of suspension.
"Had the company followed the quality control mechanism, it could not use Diethylene Glycol instead of Propylene Glycol. Perhaps the company had no mechanism to test it at all." says Prof ABM Faroque of
the department of pharmaceutical technology, Dhaka University.
The Drug Administration as the regulatory authority also failed to control quality of drugs of that company, says Prof Faroque.
According to the rules the drug superintendents and drug inspectors are supposed to visit the market time to time and collect samples randomly for testing in the laboratory. But they did not do so resulting in such deaths, he laments.
Prof Faroque, also president of Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Society, told The Daily Star the Drug Administration provided licence to companies three times its capacity to monitor.
Experts suggest the government should monitor the companies which have the permis-
sion to manufacture paracetamol syrup. At the same time, there should be a provision for all die companies to submit a sample along with a document containing ingredients, preservatives and other information every batch to the DrugAdministration.
Though there are two government drug testing laboratories in the country with die capacity of testing 3,000 samples every year, it needs to test 12,000 samples.
There are only 24 drug superintendents and inspectors at field level to collect samples from 64 districts, sources say.
Talking toThe Daily Star, Prof AFM Ruhal Haque admitted that the Drug Administration failed to identify the company that had been manufacturing
paracetamol syrup without permission.
He suggested that workforce in the Drug Administration should be increased.
"A group of unscrupulous businesspeople tend to use Diethylene Glycol as solvent in the paracetamol syrup instead of Propylene Glycol as it is less expensive," says Prof Moazzam Hossain, chairman of the department of paediatric nephrology of BSMMU and member of the seven-member investigation committee formed onTYiesday.
"Some 250 to 300 samples of paracetamol and vitamin syrup have been collected from different areas by this time. But we are yet to send these samples to the drug testing laboratories," adds Prof Moazzam.