Gambia Probes Link Between Child Deaths and a Paracetamol Syrup

Gambia Probes Link Between Child Deaths and a Paracetamol Syrup
A lab technician holds a bacteria culture that shows a positive infection of enterohemorrhagic E. coli, also known as the EHEC bacteria, from a patient at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, on June 2, 2011. Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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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.