JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s health regulator has announced to recall batches of Johnson & Johnson’s cough syrup for children after detection of high levels of diethylene glycol.
The affected batches of the cough syrup were sold in Eswatini, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, said a statement.
The development comes after report by the regulator’s Nigerian counterpart on Wednesday found the toxin in a batch of Benylin Paediatric Syrup.
Kenya and Nigeria have already issued recalls for the cough syrup, which is used to treat hay fever and other allergic conditions affecting the upper respiratory tract.
Kenvue, which currently owns the Benylin brand after a spin-off from J&J last year, in a statement said that it is carrying out its own evaluation and working with health authorities to determine a course of action.
The company said according to global safety database for the period between product release in May 2021 and up to 11 April 2024, it did not identify any serious adverse events for any batch of Benylin Paediatric Syrup.
High levels of diethylene glycol in cough syrup has already caused the deaths of dozens of children in Camaroon, Gambia and Uzbekistan since 2022 in one of the world’s worst waves of poisoning from oral medicines.
