Mothers demand justice, after 66 children in The Gambia were said to have died after being given a cough syrup that had been “potentially linked with acute kidney injuries, ” according to the World Health Organization.
The 30-year-old mother of Musa, who happened to be one of the deceased, was in tears remembering what had happened to her son.
Sitting in her home in a suburb of The Gambia’s largest city, Serrekunda, she explained that his sickness started as the flu. After he was seen by a doctor, her husband bought syrup to treat the problem. She said:
“When we gave him the syrup, the flu stopped, but it led to another problem. My son was not passing urine.”
She returned to the hospital and Musa was sent for a blood test, which ruled out malaria. He was given another treatment, which did not work, and then a catheter was fitted, but he did not pass urine.
Then they had to operate on the child but he did not make it. He died.
Earlier this week, the WHO issued a global alert over four cough syrups in connection with the deaths in The Gambia.
The products – Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup – were manufactured by an Indian company, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which had failed to provide guarantees about their safety, WHO said.
Isatou Cham was too miserable to talk about the death of her two-year-and-five-month-old son, Muhammed. She left the living room of their home in Serrekunda crying with her two other children. Her husband, Alieu Kijera, explained what had happened to his little boy.
He said he was taken to hospital when he had a fever and was unable to pass urine. But the doctors were treating Muhammed for malaria and his condition was getting worse.
The medics then said he should be treated in neighbouring Senegal, where the health service is thought to be better, but while there was some improvement, it still did not save him.
