Children die en masse from atypical kidney failure

Jakarta. The actual number of young children dying from atypical
acute kidney injury (AKI) can be five times higher than the official
government data as health authorities are investigating the cause
of a sudden surge in kidney injury cases, Health Minister Budi
Gunadi Sadikin said on Friday.
The Health Ministry reported that 133 children have died from
a total of 241 cases of acute kidney injury among children in 22
provinces over the past 10 months.
New cases have been increasing sharply in the last few months
in line with a rapidly growing number of fatalities among children
aged five years or younger.
"The undetected death toll can be three or five times bigger than
our data. What we can detect is the hospital data which reveal 35
to 40 deaths per month -- and counting," Budi said at a seminar
in Jakarta.
Paracetamol and cough syrups are potentially linked to acute kidney
failure among children and the government took a stern measure
to ban the sale of syrup medicines until further notice, he said.
On Thursday, the Drug and Food Supervisory Agency or BPOM
ordered the recall of syrup medicine brands for containing an unsafe
amount of ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG).
Budi said health officials attended the home of child patients with
AKI and also hospitals that have treated them to investigate their
medication history.
"And yesterday we announced preventive and conservative measures
by temporarily banning medicines that potentially pose health risks,"
Budi said.
Health authorities have been on a high alert since August when the
death toll hit 36 in one month, while normally there were only one
or two fatal cases of AKI among children, he said.
"In September we suspected pathogen infection as a possible cause,"
the minister recalled.
But then there were reports of possible links between the consumption
of syrup medicines and the growing number of acute kidney injuries
among children in The Gambia.
Budi said the government has imported medications for AKI in large
quantities from Singapore.
"We have received the medicines and used them on six patients, with
four of them responding positively," Budi said without going into
details.