DEG contaminated Aceminophen syrup produced by pharmaceutical...

DEG contaminated Aceminophen syrup produced by pharmaceutical company Pharval owned by the Boulos killed 80+ children in Haiti

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When Kate O'Brien arrived in Haiti on Friday, June 14, 1996, to launch the epidemiologic investigation, she immediately went to the General Hospital, where she met with pedia-tricians and epidemiologists to discuss the approaches they would employ to

pinpoint the cause(s) of the epidemic.

The weekend of her arrival, a physician with whom she had worked in Haiti in 1991 dropped off the medications he had collected from two children then in the hospital with renal failure.

She noticed that both children had taken Pharval acetaminophen preparations, one labeled Afebril and the other Valodon.

She also noted that the two drugs had sequential lot numbers, but she was not sure whether this had any significance.

O'Brien was soon joined by a colleague from the С DCs National Center for Environmental Health, Joel Selanikio, MD. Selanikio, also a member of the "Class of '95," would conduct the investigations of pharmaceutical companies, including Pharval.

By the time Selanikio arrived in Haiti, O'Brien and her colleagues suspected that the epidemic was due to DEG contamination and that Pharval's products were involved.

In an increasingly tense situation, Selanikio's arrival freed O'Brien for the ongoing medical effort.

The CDC investigators recall with grim humor that in Haiti, in contrast to everything they had learned at the CDC, the epidemic did not stop the moment they arrived.

O'Brien and Selanikio worked with a tremendous sense of urgency.

Children were dying before their eyes, usually within approximately three days of admission, and approximately three children were being admitted to the General Hospital every day.