WHO sounds the alarm over more con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed cough syrup in Africa

The World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion is once again is­su­ing an alert over cough syrup that has been al­leged­ly taint­ed.

Sam­ples of the syrup made avail­able to the WHO in late June had “un­ac­cept­able amounts” of di­eth­yl­ene gly­col (DEG), a chem­i­cal used in an­tifreeze and brake flu­id.

Some sam­ples had DEG lev­els over 28%, while the ac­cept­able lim­it is no more than 0.1%. The con­sump­tion of DEG can lead to se­ri­ous health de­fects in­clud­ing vom­it­ing, headache, ab­dom­i­nal pain and acute kid­ney in­jury that leads to death.

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