Nigeria's drug administration agency closed down a pharmaceutical manufacturer in the commercial capital Lagos after contaminated teething syrup killed 25 infants and sent at least 10 more to hospital.
The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control said on Wednesday tests had shown the chemical diethylene glycol, a poisonous substance normally used in engine coolant, had triggered kidney failure in the infants.
The children died at three hospitals across Africa's most populous nation - the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, the UCH hospital in the south-west town of Ibadan and the ABUTH hospital in the northern town of Zaria.
"In all the recorded cases at ABUTH, UCH and Lagos University Teaching Hospital the drug common to all the patients was My Pikin baby teething mixture," National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control said in a statement.
The agency said the symptoms of infants who had been given the drug included diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and convulsions and that they were unable to pass urine for days.
National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control said it had first received reports of a case of possible contamination from the Zaria hospital on November 19 and that it had started confiscating batches of the syrup two days later after carrying out tests.
It said it had shut down the manufacturer, Lagos-based Barewa Pharmaceuticals. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
Cough syrup from China adulterated with diethylene glycol killed at least 115 people in Panama in 2006.
Two brands of Chinese toothpaste were banned in the Dominican Republic in May 2007 because of fears that they contained the lethal chemical.