Mortality Rate of Acute Kidney Failure Cases Nearing 50 Percent

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the temporary banning of children's syrup medicines is a conservative prevention measure against the spread of acute kidney failure or renal failure. This step has been enacted while authorities wait for the Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) to finalize their findings regarding the three dangerous chemicals in syrup medicines.

"The Ministry of Health took a conservative stance by temporarily banning the use of syrup medicines. Considering that toddlers identified with acute kidney disorders have reached a statistic of 70 children per month," Budi said via text message, Thursday, October 20.

Budi Gunadi believes the number of children affected by acute kidney disease is definitely more than what has been reported. So far the death rate from the disease is close to 50 percent. 

"Imagine if 1 out of 70 toddlers is our children or grandchildren," said Budi.

He said that the Health Ministry had researched that chronic kidney disease among patients aged under-five years old was detected to have 3 hazardous chemicals, namely ethylene glycol (EG), diethylene glycol (DEG), and ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE).

These three chemicals are impurities from a "harmless" chemical substance, polyethylene glycol, which is often used as a solubility enhancer in many syrup drugs. "There should be zero or a very small amount of this substance in syrup medicines," said Budi.

TEMPO.CO | AMIRULLAH

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