BANJUL—Gambia’s government is investigating whether the deaths of dozens of young children from kidney failure in recent months are linked to a paracetamol syrup, the head of the country’s health service said on Thursday.
A spike in cases of acute kidney injury among children under the age of five was detected in late July. As cases mounted, doctors began to suspect medicines could be involved.
Gambia’s director of health services, Mustapha Bittaye, told Reuters that a number of patients began to fall ill with kidney problems three to five days after taking a paracetamol syrup sold locally. It was not yet clear if any particular brand of paracetamol was under investigation….