Update on Poisoning in Panamá

As the CDC jet landed in Panama City, Panama, LT Jacob Wamsley III (l) was at the airport with packaged samples and specimens, collected by staff working through the night at Panama City hospitals. LCDR Eduardo Azziz Baumgartner, MD, MPH, from NCEH’s Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, was on board to receive the samples and ensure their immediate delivery to CDC laboratories as soon as the plan returned to Atlanta. The use of the CDC jet to convey essential medical supplies to the Panama investigation team and to return samples for testing reduced the time needed to identify the cause of the outbreak.

The Honorable Martin Torrijos, President of the Republic of Panamá, receives a briefing on the program of the International Interagency Working Group from LCDR Joshua Schier, M.D., CDC team leader, shortly before midnight on October 10, 2006. The map shows the government health facilities in Panamá.

October 25, 2006 - Experts believe contaminated cough and anti-allergy syrups made in a laboratory operated by the Panamanian Government might have caused the illness of unknown origin that appeared in Panamá in September 2006 and has sickened more than 90 people, of whom more than 30 have died. Panamanian officials now know that generic sugar-free cough syrups, some that contain anti-histamines, often prescribed for diabetics, were mixed with diethylene glycol, an alcohol used as a coolant in brake fluids and hydraulic systems. Scientists and investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), both within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), continue to assist the Panamanian Ministry of Health in understanding and containing the outbreak.

For more information:

• CDC Helps Solve Panama Mystery Illness (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Last revised: February 26, 2008