I know what you must be wondering: Was it manufactured in China? Actually, no. This scandal appears to be homegrown, a manufacturer mixing an ingredient used in antifreeze into the children’s medicine because it’s cheaper than the similarly sweet glycerin. More from the NYT:

“A toxic chemical mixed into a teething medicine for babies has killed at least 84 children in Nigeria, health officials there said Friday, more than tripling the toll in a wave of infant deaths that began in late November.


The children died after taking a medicine called My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture, a syrup for teething pain, according to NigeriaÂ’s Health Ministry. Health officials said that a batch of the medicine that went on sale in November contained diethylene glycol, an industrial solvent and an ingredient in antifreeze and brake fluid.


…The high concentration of the syrupy liquid in the teething medicine has made it even more deadly — three-quarters of the children made sick by the medicine have died, the Health Ministry said.


…Investigators at NigeriaÂ’s National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control have traced the diethylene glycol to an unlicensed chemical dealer in Lagos, who sold the syrup to the maker of the teething medicine, Barewa Pharmaceuticals. The company has been shut down, and investigators have pulled off pharmacy shelves hundreds of bottles of the tainted medicine, but it remains unclear how much of the medicine was manufactured.”

Well, at least it’s not a Chinese product this time:

“Diethylene glycol has figured in mass poisoning cases across the globe. In Panama, 365 people were killed after taking medicine inadvertently tainted with the chemical in a government factory in 2006. The sweet but deadly syrup was labeled glycerin, but it was in fact diethylene glycol from a factory in China.”