The World Health Organisation (WHO) has heaped praise on the Maldives for becoming the first country to detect a containment in a medicine that was banned in November.
In a statement commending the efforts of the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA), the WHO called it “a beacon of success in addressing global health challenges.”
The Maldives identified and alerted the WHO about two dangerous chemicals in liquid cetirizine of the Alergo brand manufactured by the Pakistan laboratory Pharmix.
In an alert issued on November 12, the MFDA said the presence of the contaminants “diethylene glycol” and “ethylene glycol” was confirmed when additional samples were taken from more batches of the Alergo brand.
According to the WHO, the MFDA identified the contaminants using a new screening method developed for its less-resourced National Quality Control Laboratory (NQCL). After the Maldives alerted the WHO, the organization carried out additional investigations and informed other countries.
“This finding was not merely a national concern as the same products had been marketed in four other countries, thus enabling to safeguard public health at a global scale,” reads a statement published on the WHO website on Thursday.
The MFDA’s work in collaboration with the WHO was commendable, it added.
