Abuja  - The number of babies who died after being administered a locally made teething mixture in Nigeria has risen from 25 to 34, the state-run food and drugs regulatory agency said Wednesday.

Dora Akunyili, Director-General of the National Food and Drugs Administration and Control, said the additional deaths were recorded at one of Nigeria's oldest medicine training institutes, the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in Zaria, where eight had died earlier.

"NAFDAC has received a clinical case report from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital on the death of five more children," she said. "This brings the number of officially reported deaths to 34."

The five children died in the hospital on Sunday, November 30, 2008, while another died Tuesday outside hospital premises in Lagos from the consumption of "My Pikin" children mixture.

"The children died in spite of dialysis treatment because the kidneys were already damaged," Akunyili said.

In Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, seven children who took received the mixture were are still on admission.

Akunyili added that NAFDAC was making every effort possible to address the problem, including urgently importing an antidote.

She said that NAFDAC had visited 1,675 drugs outlets, pharmacies, patent medicine stores, market stalls, clinics and hospitals, where it recovered 425 bottles of "My Pikin" teething mixture.

The agency is making concerted efforts to track down the main importer of the contaminated chemical used in making the drugs by a local drugs manufacturer, Akunyili added.

Children who took the drug exhibited fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and inability to pass urine.

Akunyili said that laboratory analysis of the drug revealed that diethylene glycol was the suspected cause of the deaths. (dpa)