Nearly 100 Dead After Being Treated With Fentanyl Tainted With Bacteria In Argentina: Report
Buenos Aires, Argentina: After being treated with medical-use fentaNYL that was tainted with bacteria in Argentina, as many as 96 people are now fearful of losing their lives, The Guardian reported.
After several hospital patients suffered infections in May this year, the matter first came to public notice. Some of these bacterias detected in patients were resistant to antibiotics.
After a probe, the investigators found fentaNYL as the reason for the infection. The substance was thus traced to HLB Pharma and its laboratory, Laboratorio Ramallo, a pharmaceutical company located in San Isidro.
Argentina’s drug regulator, Anmar, after carrying out a comprehensive test, confirmed that there was bacterial contamination in the deceased patients, and they were in ampoules from two fentaNYL batches prepared by the company. Notably, the substance had been widely circulated, as per the investigators.
However, Ariel García Furfaro, the owner of the controversial pharmaceutical firm, denied the allegations, asserting that the deaths could not be directly attributed to their company’s product. He claimed his company pulled it from the market itself, and claimed that if the ampoules were contaminated, it could be that someone had planted them.
The patients infected with the bacteria were hospitalised for unrelated conditions and were given the drug for pain relief. fentaNYL is a synthetic opioid approved for pain relief and anesthetic, and is 100 times more powerful than morphine. As per estimates, the contamination may have affected more than 300,000 ampoules distributed across Buenos Aires province, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Formosa and Buenos Aires city.
The fentaNYL caused their death within days, and the death toll is climbing day by day as investigators are looking into more cases of patients’ death in recent months after receiving the drug.
However, authorities have not filed any charges so far. Notably, the court has named 24 people involved in the manufacture and sale of the opioid as suspects, prohibiting them from leaving Argentina. The court has also frozen their assets.
