Panama: A mystery illness which has killed 21 people in Panama was caused by government-made cough and anti-allergy syrups probably contaminated with a toxic chemical on purpose, according to officials.
Health minister Camilo Alleyne said generic sugar-free cough syrups made in a government lab, some containing anti-histamine, were mixed with diethylene glycol, an alcohol used as a coolant in brake fluids and hydraulic systems.
Speaking to reporters, he ruled out human error, saying it was likely the medicines had been tampered with maliciously.
The sugar-free syrups, which are popular with diabetics and produced in a local lab by Panama's social security system, have been removed from clinics and the government has warned people not to use them.
Twenty-one people have died from the illness so far and 13 are sick, according to the latest health ministry figures.
Mr Alleyne said the alcohol was discovered with the help of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The US Food and Drug Administration was assisting studies, he said.
He said the chemical, which is not intended for human consumption, causes the same symptoms as those displayed by the people who died - acute kidney failure and death.
"This is a substance that should not be present in any way among the products or medicines," Mr Alleyne said. "It is a toxic substance and definitely should not be found in any solution or preparation in the laboratory or any medicine."
The illness starts with nausea, fever, weakness and diarrhoea and quickly progresses to acute kidney failure, partial paralysis and death. Police are investigating the poisoning.
Social security system director René Luciani told reporters the syrups were made using special dosage machines and that human hands did not touch them at any time during the process.
"This is a foreign substance, foreign to the production process," he said. "The presence of this substance indicates that the product may have been tampered with."
The illness has mainly struck men over 60 being treated for high blood pressure, kidney disorders and diabetes.
Earlier this week the government recalled 2 million tablets of popular high blood pressure medicine Lisinopril, after noticing that nine people who had fallen sick had taken it.
Scientists from the government and the medicine's maker, Madrid-based Normon SA, tested the drug and found no toxic agents.
- (Reuters)