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Gambia is considering legal action after toxic Indian cough syrup led to the deaths of 70 children. The syrup was found to contain lethal toxins by the World Health Organization. The Indian government denies any wrongdoing and claims their own tests found no toxins. Experts believe the cough syrup may have been contaminated with brake fluid ingredients. There are concerns about lax drug regulation in India and the lack of testing in recipient countries. The Gambian government is planning to build a testing facility for imported drugs. The main questions raised are the contradictions between tests conducted by WHO and the Indian government, the lack of testing in recipient countries, and whether India is still supplying unsafe drugs to other countries. Hello and welcome to this episode of the Tire of a Lawyer. Today I want to briefly cover the issue around the toxic Indian cough syrup that led to the loss of lives of many of several children in the Gambia and that syrup was entrusted to having been manufactured in India at least according to various multiple sources including international organizations. So according to the media and various reports the Gambia has hired a U.S. law firm to explore legal action after a government-backed investigation found that contaminant medicines from India were responsible whether that could have caused the deaths of children. At least 70 children are reported to have lost their lives over the last several months most under five years old who died from acute kidney injury between June and October last year. Our local doctors suspected the cough syrups to be imported from India as the likely culprits according to reports by Reuters and tests by the World Health Organization confirmed the presence of lethal toxins sparking a global hunt for contaminated medicine. The Gambian Justice Minister Dawooda Jalloh told the media that legal action was one option under consideration by the government which was the first sign of potential international litigation over the losses of lives. Jalloh did not say who would be the target of potential legal proceedings or when then the law firm had help. The medicines were linked to the children's deaths and were made by the Indian drug maker Maiden Pharmaceuticals which denied wrongdoing. Now the test by the World Health Organization the WHO found that Maiden cough syrups contained the lethal toxins diethylene glycol DEG brackets and ethylene glycol brackets EG which are used in carb break fluid. Just pause for a moment so DEG and EG are used in carb break fluid and these were found to be in the syrup cough syrup given to children in the Gambia in Africa West Africa. The Indian government has said its own tests on the drugs for no toxins. Now the Indian Health Ministry and Maiden Pharmaceuticals did not respond to requests for comment on Gambia's possible legal action and WHO declined to comment. Indian officials have said that the WHO failed to prove a causal link to the Gambia deaths accusing agents of denigrating denigrating 41 billion from the industry. However cough syrups made by a second Indian drug maker have been linked to the deaths of 19 children in Uzbekistan. India has since made drug testing mandatory for cough syrups before export. Gambia's justice ministry is considering its options after completion of a new government commission causality assessment a panel of international experts the minister said. The media has the first media say that's in a copy of the report which was presented to the president Adama Barrow in April but has not been made public and in the report experts say that they analysed 56 cases of acute kidney injury. Of those they found 22 were very likely to have died from DEG or EG poisoning after taking maiden products. However the panel could not confirm the cause of death in another 30 cases but said it was highly suggestive quote-unquote that they were killed by DEG or EG and it said that there was not enough evidence in for other cases. Doctors were also able to carry out autopsies on just two of the patients and the pathology from both was consistent with DEG and EG poisoning according to reports seen by the media and of all the medicines tested after the deaths only maidens were shown to be toxic it said. Now DEG and EG substances allegedly found in the cough syrup can be used by unscrupulous actors as the chip substitute for propylene glycol a key ingredient in syrup medicine according to several pharmaceutical manufacturing experts. Reuters could not determine if Indian authorities had seen the cause of the report and this is just the latest piece of a month of long investigation into the debts which raised concerns among global health officials about regulation in lax drugs India's sector and oversight of pharmaceutical raw materials worldwide and many of the countries. India supplies including Gambia have no means of testing imported drugs. The WHO has said it is continuing to investigate the source of contaminated cough syrups in Gambia, Uzbekistan and several other countries have been frustrated by a lack of information regarding maidens drugs and a key middleman in the supply chain of those medicines still unknown are known according to media reports. Now Gambia's minister Dauda said the causality assessment and the justice ministry's recommendations will be made public within six months. Gambia is also planning to build a testing facility for imported drugs from the world bank according to media reports. The reporting of the purported apparent legal action that will be taken or appears to have been instigated or about to be instigated by the Gambian government was widely reported by the media and is a matter of public records. Now the key points there, first of all how come that the there are contradictions between the tests done by WHO and other doctors to have found the lethal substances and yet according to the reports the Indian government says that their own tests did not confirm the presence of lethal toxins, that's number one. Number two, how come that at least the recipient governments do not have tests for the medicine that they are buying and providing to the population especially children and if it is arguable that they don't have the resources to do so, why isn't there an African union facility or agency, health agency that conducts such tests? And the last question is if in fact the reports are true, is India still supplying those medicine or other medicine to other countries and are they safe? I mean those are questions that clearly remain unanswered and will be occupying the conscience and the minds of millions and millions of people all around the world, especially those who were victims of this lethal cough syrup which has DEG and EG substances that are allegedly or probably used in brake fluids. A very very very very disturbing development but there we shall leave it on this episode of the diary of a lawyer on such a somber mood but I think it is really really important that the African union and Africa and other countries stand up and stand up and develop mechanisms and systems and institutions to conduct these kinds of due diligence mechanisms in their own interests because other people as history has shown are probably not going to put their interests first other than their own interests including profits. And so there we shall leave it on this episode of the diary of a lawyer and we shall speak again but the key point here is that Gambia has hired a US law firm to consider action on toxic Indian cough syrup. Thank you for listening and we shall speak again.