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JS team to look into 'paracetamol' deaths of 24 children
Thu, Jul 23rd, 2009 3:44 pm BdST
Dhaka, July 23 (bdnews24.com) ? A four-member parliamentary team was formed Thursday to look into the recent deaths of 24 children from kidney failure after reportedly taking a children's paracetamol product.
The Drug Administration has asked the Rid Pharmaceutical Company to stop production of a paracetamol suspension reportedly containing toxic ingredients.
The parliamentary standing committee on the health ministry formed the team, headed by MP Nazmul Hasan, which will to visit pharmaceutical factories across the country, committee chairman Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim told reporters.
Hassan is himself a managing director of a drugs company, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, and also an adviser to the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries.
There will be three experts on the committee, who will examine the production facilities of the factories and submit a report in three months, Karim said.
The standing committee also recommended the government build a modern laboratory to test pharmaceutical products. There are now two laboratories in Dhaka and Chittagong but they lack modern technology.
Health minister Ruhal Haque attended the meeting.
Children's deaths
Dhaka Shishu (Children's) Hospital has seen 19 deaths due to renal failure in the last one and a half months, according to newspaper reports.
The hospital authorities have said that a total of 26 child patients with renal failure have been admitted to the hospital since the start of June. The unusually high figure reportedly led one doctor to test a suspicious drug product at a private laboratory.
Five renal failure deaths at BSMMU Hospital have also forced it to form a three-member committee to investigate the issue.
The Drug Administration on Wednesday ordered the Rid Pharmaceutical Company in Brahmanbaria to suspend manufacture and marketing of their products including vitamin and paracetamol suspensions for children, and to publish an announcement in three daily newspapers.
Drug Administration officials also visited the factory site and took samples for testing.
The government has also said a separate seven-member investigation body, formed earlier in the week, has already started collecting samples of Rid's vitamin and paracetamol suspensions from different areas of the country.
If nothing harmful is found in the products, the company could resume production again, said officials.
bdnews24.com/krc/su/bd/rah/1536h.
Thu, Jul 23rd, 2009 3:44 pm BdST
Dhaka, July 23 (bdnews24.com) ? A four-member parliamentary team was formed Thursday to look into the recent deaths of 24 children from kidney failure after reportedly taking a children's paracetamol product.
The Drug Administration has asked the Rid Pharmaceutical Company to stop production of a paracetamol suspension reportedly containing toxic ingredients.
The parliamentary standing committee on the health ministry formed the team, headed by MP Nazmul Hasan, which will to visit pharmaceutical factories across the country, committee chairman Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim told reporters.
Hassan is himself a managing director of a drugs company, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, and also an adviser to the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries.
There will be three experts on the committee, who will examine the production facilities of the factories and submit a report in three months, Karim said.
The standing committee also recommended the government build a modern laboratory to test pharmaceutical products. There are now two laboratories in Dhaka and Chittagong but they lack modern technology.
Health minister Ruhal Haque attended the meeting.
Children's deaths
Dhaka Shishu (Children's) Hospital has seen 19 deaths due to renal failure in the last one and a half months, according to newspaper reports.
The hospital authorities have said that a total of 26 child patients with renal failure have been admitted to the hospital since the start of June. The unusually high figure reportedly led one doctor to test a suspicious drug product at a private laboratory.
Five renal failure deaths at BSMMU Hospital have also forced it to form a three-member committee to investigate the issue.
The Drug Administration on Wednesday ordered the Rid Pharmaceutical Company in Brahmanbaria to suspend manufacture and marketing of their products including vitamin and paracetamol suspensions for children, and to publish an announcement in three daily newspapers.
Drug Administration officials also visited the factory site and took samples for testing.
The government has also said a separate seven-member investigation body, formed earlier in the week, has already started collecting samples of Rid's vitamin and paracetamol suspensions from different areas of the country.
If nothing harmful is found in the products, the company could resume production again, said officials.
bdnews24.com/krc/su/bd/rah/1536h.
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