Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin on Monday outlined the progress of the investigation into atypical progressive acute kidney injury, which has been detected in 245 children from 26 provinces across Indonesia and caused 141 deaths.
“Since August (2022), we have started to observe (the spread of the disease) by conducting a pathology review,” he said at Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java province, on Monday.
The increase in the number of atypical progressive acute kidney injury cases began in August 2022, not at the beginning of the year, he noted.
“In September (2022), we conducted a pathological analysis of the children suffering from the disease to find out if they were infected by viruses, bacteria, or parasites. It turned out that it (the condition) is very unlikely to be caused by viruses or bacteria (infection),” he said.
The results of the examination carried out on all patients showed that there was no bacterial infection caused by Leptospira, the minister informed.
“We thought, ‘Oh, maybe it was because of COVID-19 (infection).’ (However), we had examined all the affected children and less than one percent (of them) were positive for COVID-19,” he highlighted.
Thus, in September, his ministry was still hypothesizing the cause of the disease, since the surge in cases throughout August was not significantly caused by virus, bacteria, or parasite infections, he said.
On October 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning regarding the deaths of dozens of children in the Gambia from acute kidney injury due to the presence of harmful chemicals in drug solvents.
“We communicated with the WHO and also with the Gambia government, then we carried out a toxicological analysis,” Sadikin informed.
His ministry conducted the toxicological analysis using the blood and urine of patients.
“We tested ten children. It turned out that the blood or urine of seven of them contained the chemicals. Thus, it was positive that 70 percent of the children were affected (by acute kidney injury) because of the chemicals,” he stated.
Furthermore, the Health Ministry also examined patients who died of acute kidney injury and found symptoms of kidney damage caused by harmful chemicals.
The minister said that the ministry’s investigation team also visited the homes of patients and took samples of medicines from the patients’ homes for examination.
“We implemented the test (to know) whether these dangerous chemical compounds were found (in the medicines consumed by the patients) or not,” he said.
He informed that the ministry party used the National Police’s Forensic Laboratory Center for the examination.
“Most of the medicines found at the patients’ houses contained these dangerous chemical compounds,” he stated.
However, the ministry has not examined the amount of dangerous chemicals contained in the medicines.
Based on the examination and study results, the Health Ministry concluded that the cause of acute kidney injury was drugs contaminated with ethylene glycol (EG), diethylene glycol (DEG), and ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE).
Source: Antara News