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This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 71%. (I'm a bot)


The World Health Organization has called for "Immediate and concerted action" to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year.
In 2022, more than 300 children - mainly aged under 5 - in the Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury, in deaths that were associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said in a statement on Monday.
The WHO has already sent specific product alerts in October and earlier this month, asking for the medicines to be removed from the shelves, for cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals and Marion Biotech, which are linked with deaths in the Gambia and Uzbekistan respectively.


Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: medicines^#1 call^#2 action^#3 deaths^#4 product^#5
The companies involved have either denied that their products have been contaminated or declined to comment while investigations are ongoing.

I hope these companies (especially the ones who are denying it) are wrapped up in legal litigation between now and Doomsday. >

They're made in third world countries with little to no safety regulations even for their own citizens...
We won't see change until the rest of the world bans their imports of food and medicine due to safety concerns.
Not just these companies, but industry wide.
It's the only way to make their governments do anything >

They will change their name, brand and star again. >

Which is why other governments need to ban their whole industries until they get their shit together and start regulating them >

Ethylene glycol? Isn't this stuff antifreeze? >

Kids love the sweet, smooth flavour, and it's effective at treating flu symptoms like chills as low as -40c >

Wait that's the famous one with a good taste? :o (or is there many of this kind?) >

Ethylene glucol (antifreeze) is apparently quite tasty/sweet (never wanted to try, myself) so it results in a fair number of accidental poisonings of pets and young children since they don’t know better, plus intentional ingestion by adult men who I guess don’t realize the extent to which its dangerous? Plus, it requires pretty intensive treatment to reverse so its dangerous to places w poor health services. >

Apparently ethanol is commonly used as a treatment for antifreeze poisoning. >

Yup! But people often also require dialysis and other supportive treatments in addition to the dosed ethanol.