My pickin teething formula

[gogannaka]

For those having children please do not use 'My pickin teething formula' as it has killed more than 40 children in Nigeria.

NAFDAC is currently seizing all of the products in all the stores across the country.
BEWARE!----'MY PICKIN'

[Abbas Bubakar El-ta'alu]

Can you please produce a statistical proofs? This can help professionals in knowing the extent of damage, and methods of intervention.

[gogannaka]

Here's a report by daily trust Newspapers:

Mid last week, the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof Dora Akunyili announced that Barewa Pharmaceuticals in Lagos manufactured the lethal teething mixture called My Pickin teething mixture that responsible for the death of about 25 children across the federation.


According to the NAFDAC boss, on November 19, her organisation was alerted through a telephone call from a pharmacist at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria on the death of some children which was suspected to be as a result of consuming the deadly mixture.

Following the alert, NAFDAC's officials visited ABUTH twice within a few hours the same day, and death were confirmed.

As at November 20, 2008, 11 cases were reported at ABUTH, out of which eight children had died, while three were on admission and under dialysis in the hospital.

While investigations were on to unravel the genuine cause of the sudden death of the innocent children, similar reports were received simultaneously by NAFDAC from the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-araba, Lagos, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja and Gbagada General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos.

The report was that many more children suffered from fever, diarrhoea, and renal failure.

As the death toll rose in Lagos, the state government made a public appeal to parents and guardians whose children were showing any signs of inability to pass urine and or puffiness of the face to immediately take such children to any government hospital for proper medical attention.

Represented by the state's Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris while making the appeal, the state government confirmed that it had recorded deaths of  no fewer than 29 children within a week,  suspected to have stemmed from My Pickin Mixture ingestion.

Government, therefore, directed that all cases of  acute renal failure in public and private hospitals across Lagos State be reported to the Disease Control Directorate of the State Ministry of Health while mothers should avoid giving their children  any kind of drugs except as prescribed by qualified health personnel.

Government added that in as much the power to regulate the production and distribution of finished drugs lied with NAFDAC, and that the agency had already identified the source of the trouble it was doing all it could to do away with the problem.

Meanwhile, NAFDAC has given the batch number of My Pickin mixture most patients in Kaduna used as Batch 02008, manufactured in October this year and expected to expire in November 2011.

NAFDAC has since last week commenced mop up My Pikin mixture all over the country and the local manufacturing facility of Barewa Pharmaceutical Limited at Akowonjo, a suburb of Lagos has been closed down by the agency.

However, controversy has crept in as Barewa Pharmaceuticals Limited has denied being responsible for the untimely death of the children.

In a statement issued last Wednesday by its management, signed by its chairman, Mr. Kola Okunola, the company said it was surprised by the allegations by NAFDAC.

The company stated that it did not only possess NAFDAC licence to produce the drug, but that it had produced thousands bottles of the drug for more than two years without complaints from users or NAFDAC.

"We are, however, bothered that there are conflicting claims between NAFDAC and the teaching hospitals regarding the deaths of children in some of the nation's hospitals," part of the statement read.

NAFDAC had earlier blamed LUTH for not informing the agency when the first few children died in the hospital.

At a press briefing, chairman Medical Adversary Committee of the hospital, Prof. James Renner, who stood in for the Chief Medical Director, Prof. Akin Osibogun, who was said to have gone to Abuja on official assignment, noted that before any drug was sold in Nigeria, such product must have gone through NAFDAC's approval.

He said if any product registered by the agency was found dangerous, then the agency must be blamed.

He said when the hospital experienced the death of the first six children over the same cause, it immediately alerted the Federal Ministry of Heath and the Lagos State Ministry of Health, informing both ministries that LUTH had a case of epidemic on its hands.

According to him, in a situation like that, before an alarm could be raised, the hospital had to convince itself beyond reasonable doubt that the case at hand was genuinely that of epidemic.

Renner said the hospital in the first few days of recording the deaths of the children started putting certain hypotheses together to get to the root of the deaths, noting that management immediately sent sample of the paracetamol to its pharmacy department to try it on rabbits to see how the animal would react to the drug.

"If it dies, it means the drug is the cause of the children's death," he said, adding that there was good reason for the hospital to think of some other reasons why the children were dying.

"For example," he said, "just recently, there was the case of teething powder, the Gold Milk from China before the My Pikin mixture case, and the hospital thinks it might be the Gold Milk that has found its way into the country."

According to Renner, 20 children were brought to the hospital out of whom 15 died, two were referred to UCH, Ibadan, while one of the children was treated by LUTH.

One was discharged on medical advice but the hospital could not give an account of the condition of the last child as at that time, he said.

NAFDAC said that all over the world, a development of this nature was usually reported to the regulatory agencies, not just the Ministry of Health, which did not notify NAFDAC of LUTH's report on the fatal medicine.

Meanwhile, fears have gripped many medicine sellers at the popular Mushin and Agege markets, Lagos, as many of them have started withdrawing the suspected My Pickin syrup from their shelves.

When Sunday  Trust visited the drug market on Thursday, many medicine outlets and drug store owners were seen re-arraigning their drug shelves after romoving teething mixture from their shelves.

At the Lagos State University of Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Children's Ward, mothers were seen discussing the "killer drug" and its implications.

Mrs. Adaranijo Sabitiyu a mother of twins—a boy and a girl  who are eight months old  appealed to the state government  to ensure that  not only fake teething mixtures were withdrawn from the market but other fake drugs saying "there were many more fake drugs in circulation."

Outside in the state capital, Ikeja, some of the patent medicine dealers who spoke with correspondents explained that the tragic incident was a repeat of a similar one.

The drug marketers who said they were shocked by the news of the tragedy because the controversial teething mixture was one of the most popular and fast selling pediatric drugs in the country.

They argued that should My Pickin teething mixture be confirmed responsible for the deaths in the past two weeks, the death toll would be monumental.

Last year, NAFDAC cracked down on all foreign-manufactured toothpaste following the discovery of a harmful agent in a Chinese-made brand.

NAFDAC said it had found anti-freezing agent diethylene glycol (DEG) in Chinese-made Colgate.

All retailers are to destroy all foreign-manufactured toothpastes on their shelves, NAFDAC ordered.

Retailers who fail to destroy the illegal toothpaste would be prosecuted.

DEG can cause abdominal pains, nausea, vomiting, damage to kidneys and liver and, if ingested in large amounts, could be fatal, head of NADAC Dora Akunyili told the BBC News website.

NAFDAC warned Nigerians not to patronise any foreign-manufactured toothpaste as it could not guarantee their safety.

"No foreign toothpaste is registered for use in Nigeria," Akunyili said.

"Only made in Nigeria toothpastes are safe for public use."

There are no known cases of people falling sick after using foreign-made toothpastes in Nigeria.

But Akunyili said the growing cases of kidney and liver damage "may not be unconnected with these illegal toothpaste even though we have no proof of a direct connection at the moment."

[Abbas Bubakar El-ta'alu]

That's quite enough an explanation to the 'teething formula', and I hope the Nigerian epidemeologists, and subsequently the Federal Government, would respond immediately.

[gogannaka]

Culled from the Guardian Newspaper (10-01-09)

Meanwhile, following the recent My Pikin Teething Mixture scandal in the pharmaceutical industry, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has banned all products containing paracetamol BP 120 mg and Diphenhydramine Hcl BP 6.25mg/5ml for children's use.

Briefing Journalists in Lagos yesterday, the Acting Director-General of NAFDAC, Mrs. Doris Amlai said the ban was to forestall a recurrence of My Pikin crisis, which saw the unfortunate death of many children across the country.

"Products containing Paracetamol BP 120mg and Diphenhydramine Hcl BP 6.25mg /5ml for children's use marketed in Nigeria have been deregistered. But following the random sampling and analysis of various brands of paracetamol syrup in the market, we can now pronounce that registered paracetamol syrups are safe for use," Amlai said.

Paracetamol BP 120 mg and Diphenhydramine are the two mild pain-relieving agents used in the manufacture of My Pikin Teething Mixture by Barewa Pharmaceutical Limited.

[Abbas Bubakar El-ta'alu]

At last the Federal Government has responded. Nevertheless, I would like to say, as a specialist, that methods of producing the Paracetamol and Diphenhydramine Hcl should be checked in those places that manufacture the drugs. This is because these two substances, par se, are not all that hamful to the physiological functioning of the human body. The manufacturers, I think, produced the drugs without prior investigations into what age-related effects the dosages of BP 120mg and BP 6.25mg /5ml, respectively, would pevail. Many other factors  have to here be considered, like individual physiological differences, as well as all-round side-effects, especially to the liver. These are what world pronounce drug manufacturers do before the release of their produce. The processes involved may be prolonged. I think, the first step has been implimented by NAFDAC, more greese to its elbows, hurra!!!