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Health Crisis Worsens in Panama
The Panamanian Attorney's Office
has ordered the exhumations of
eight bodies of people who
allegedly died of poisoning by
contaminated drugs.
Prosecutor Dimas Guevara pointed
out that the exhumations were
recommended by the Legal
Medicine Institute.
In mid February, the Public
Ministry exhumed 11 bodies, two
of which contained remains of
the industrial substance
diethylenglycol.
According to Legal Medicine
Institute Director Jose Vicente
Pachar, more than 50 percent of
the 80 suspected victims
examined showed evidence
confirming diethylenglycol
poisoning.
In only 10 percent of the cases,
the presence of the poisonous
substance was ruled out, he
added.
Although the government has
admitted 51 deaths due to the
health crisis, Guevara said
recently that he had received
more than 400 denunciations of
people poisoned by
diethylenglycol, 350 of whom
have died.
The crisis began on October 2,
2006, when authorities decreed
an epidemiology alert, after
deaths of six people due unknown
causes.
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