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Indonesia bans medicinal syrups after more children die of mysterious kidney illness
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An employee collects medicinal syrups that contain paracetamol at a minimarket in South Tangerang, Banten, on October 19, 2022. The Health Ministry has banned the sale of all medicinal syrups following the deaths of nearly 100 children across the country from unexplained acute kidney failure. (Antara/Sulthony Hasanuddin )
T
he Health Ministry has temporarily banned the prescription of all syrup-based medicines and their over-the-counter sales amid an ongoing probe into an unexplained rise in the number of acute kidney injury (AKI) cases that has left nearly 100 children dead so far this year.
As of Tuesday, the ministry had recorded at least 206 AKI cases – mostly in children under six years old – in 20 provinces with 99 fatalities since January, spokesman Mohammad Syahril told a press conference on Wednesday.
This puts the fatality rate at a staggering 48 percent.
“There have previously been [cases of] acute kidney injury, but at a much lower figure, only one or two [cases] each month,” Syahril said, adding that the spike in cases happened in late August.
He also noted that the state-run Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) in Jakarta – the ministry’s national referral hospital – had reported a higher fatality rate of 65 percent.
While authorities have not identified the definitive cause of the disease, the ministry has taken the precaution of ordering health facilities and medical workers to temporarily stop prescribing syrup-based medicines and drug stores to temporarily halt the sale of such medicines until further notice.
“In line with the Health Ministry circular [issued on Tuesday], all kinds of syrup-based medicine are banned, not only paracetamol. [We suspect that], it’s not the contents of the medicine itself, but other components [of the medicine] that may be toxic,” Syahril said.
