Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 100 times more powerful than morphine, has left a trail of death from overdoses across the US. Could a similar public health danger be emerging in Argentina?
According to federal judge Ernesto Kreplak, up to 76 people have now died this year from using a contaminated batch of fentanyl (identified as Lot 31202) as a painkiller, although other estimates put the death toll higher. “We are organising our work around assuming the number of victims is much higher” he has said. The problem was first detected in April and May this year when the Hospital Italiano in La Plata (in Buenos Aires province) reported nine fentanyl-linked deaths. Investigations revealed that contaminated batches of the opioid, consisting of around 150,000 vials, had been dispatched to medical centres around the country. Produced by HLB Pharma, a local pharmaceutical company, and its laboratory, Laboratorio Ramallo, they were found to contain two dangerous bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Ralstonia pickettii.
Anmat, the Argentine food and drug regulator, ordered health centres not to use the infected batch and HLP Pharma to cease production pending investigation. A court case was initiated under Judge Kreplak. The judge told journalists that tracing the contaminated vials has been a difficult investigation, but that he believes that around 45,000 vials of the contaminated opioid had been administered to patients, meaning the real death toll could go much higher.
Federal Court Number 3 in La Plata, under Judge Kreplak, has now named a total of 24 people, including Ariel García Furfaro, the presumed owner of HLB Pharma, along with pharmacists, managers, and directors who are being investigated on various counts. One of these is a separate case where the company is accused of falsifying an import permit for opioid precursors. In the chamber of deputies Silvana Giudici (Propuesta Republicana – PRO) has been calling for the formation of a commission of enquiry.
US comparison
While fentanyl consumption in the US is much more prevalent than in Argentina, the risk of expansion in the latter country is still significant. A recently published annual report by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that Argentina’s ten free-trade zones and the special customs regime in Tierra del Fuego make it comparatively easy to bring cash and precursor chemicals into the country. It states, “Argentina’s vulnerabilities in terms of money laundering and the financing of terrorism derive from contraband, narco-trafficking, public corruption, and tax evasion and are aggravated by insufficient supervision of financial activity, real estate transactions and gambling.”
