The UN health agency, WHO, has warned that a cough and cold syrup product sold in Cameroon contained high level amounts of chemicals that are dangerous for use.

The UN health agency told Reuters that said an investigation is underway to unravel the source of the product.

This is the latest in a series of recent warnings about contaminated cough syrups as the WHO pledged to identify the source of the product.

The syrup’s container label indicated that it was made by a firm called Fraken International (England), however the UK health regulator stated that no such company exists in the country, according to the WHO.

The call for caution from the Cameroonian authorities comes after the country’s health agency announced in April that it was looking into the deaths of six children linked to Naturcold.

Recall that more than 300 children, mostly under the age of five, died of acute renal injury in Gambia, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan in 2022, as a result of identical products made by other producers. According to the WHO, the threat is still ongoing.

Experts say the contaminants in the cough syrups can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, an altered mental state and acute kidney injury, among other symptoms, which may eventually lead to death.

The WHO, meanwhile, promised to continue to work with the Member State Mechanism on substandard and falsified medical products in implementing its mandate to promote effective collaboration in the prevention, detection and response to substandard and falsified medical products to save lives.