CAIRO: More infants reportedly died after they received a rehydration solution at a hospital in Upper Egypt’s Beni Suef governorate, according to news reports.
One-year-old Mahmoud Sayed died Friday after he was given the rehydration solution, which was does match health standards, according to the Ministry of Health’s tests.
Mahmoud was not the first case to die this month of the solution; two infants reportedly passed away Aug. 1 under similar circumstances. Four more children died by the end of July when the crisis broke out. Dozens of children were referred to hospitals in Beni Suef over common symptoms of intestinal catarrh.
The symptoms, quoting the ministry’s spokesperson Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, are at normal rate due to hot weather witnessed in Egypt. Convulsions, continuous vomiting and fainting were common among the hospitalized children who received rehydration solution as supportive measures to their fever.
The blamed solution is part of a new patch delivered to hospitals in July; the ministry halted the use of the solution and ordered the closure of a pharmaceutical company accused of selling the drug. Beba Central Hospital received three new cases of children suffering from convulsions, who were then transferred to Beni Suef Fever hospital. The ages of the referred children, diagnosed with Meningitis, vary between three months to one year.