Contaminated cough syrup kills 26 in Panama

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2006

PANAMA CITY (AFP) — Cough syrup contaminated with a chemical used as car radiator coolant has killed 26 people and made dozens more sick in Panama, authorities said. At least 40 people are currently hospitalized after being poisoned by diethylene glycol, an industrial chemical toxic to humans that was found in the cough syrup, health authorities said.

Infectious disease specialist Jose Motta said 24 of the 40 patients in hospital were in potentially life-threatening condition. Chief prosecutor Ana Matilde Gomez said Wednesday that five people were arrested pending an investigation into their relationship to a company that imported the chemical and then sold it three years ago to the national health service Caja del Seguro Social (CSS), which mixes some of its own...