The death toll from contaminated fentanyl administered in Argentina's hospitals grew to over 100 on Thursday, the government said, blaming a local pharma lab as outrage grew over the slow response to the crisis.
Since May, the country has been trying to determine how many deaths were linked to bacteria-infected supplies of the drug used in hospitals in four provinces as well as the capital Buenos Aires.
Ariel Furfaro Garcia, the owner of HLB Pharma group, was the "manufacturer of the batch of contaminated fentanyl responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people," a spokesperson for Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei said in a statement.
Following an investigation, Argentina's drug regulatory agency ANMAT had shut down the lab three months before the first deaths from the tainted fentanyl occurred, the statement added.
Furfaro Garcia has previously denied claims that he was responsible, blaming a former colleague for planting the story in the media, according to newspaper reports.
Two weeks ago, relatives of victims protested outside a hospital in the city of La Plata south of Buenos Aires, where the first deaths were reported, demanding "justice for the fentanyl victims."
The latest increase in the death toll comes just weeks before September 7 legislative elections in Buenos Aires province, which is the most populous in the country.
The vote is considered a prelude to October's national mid-term legislative elections, which will serve as a popularity test of the self-described "anarcho-capitalist" Milei.
At a campaign rally in La Plata, Milei accused the followers of his arch-nemesis, left-wing ex-president Cristina Kirchner, of an "atrocious cover-up" of Furfaro Garcia's involvement in the fentanyl deaths, without providing evidence.
Calling Furfaro a "longtime Kirchnerist associate," he accused his rivals of getting "getting away with any atrocity."
A probe into the fentanyl deaths first arose from a complaint filed by ANMAT, which had received a report from a hospital that discovered the tainted drug in its supply, an employee of the agency told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Experts have warned that the death toll could rise as new medical records are reviewed and cases are confirmed in hospitals that to date had not reported any fentanyl-linked deaths.
AFP
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