The number of deaths due to contaminated medical-use fentanyl in Argentina continues to grow, as victim 34 was confirmed on Tuesday. The case was reported in Balcarce, a town located 50 kilometers from Mar del Plata.

According to Herald sister publication C5N, the Mar del Plata prosecutor’s office received a complaint from the Balcarce Public Hospital saying that a batch of medical-use fentanyl had tested positive for two bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae MBL and Ralstonia Pickettii. Those two bacteria, which have been found in all previous reported cases, can cause serious illnesses, such as antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

According to the national health ministry, 69 suspected cases have been reported across the country and are under investigation. Of those 69 patients, 54 were confirmed to have received the contaminated drug. So far, 34 people have died due to the contamination: 33 are on the health ministry’s records and the final case went straight to the local judiciary. Most cases were detected in public clinics and hospitals in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, and in Buenos Aires City. Neuquén has also reported one suspicious finding.

La Plata Federal Judge Ernesto Kreplak, who is investigating the matter, on Tuesday asked provincial health authorities to submit detailed information on patients who have received the drug in recent months. The number of cases is expected to rise if the application of the drug is proven to be more widespread than first suspected.

The case

The investigation began in early May after at least 20 people were infected by Klebsiella pneumoniae MBL and Ralstonia Pickettii. After analyzing 18 cases from the Hospital Italiano in La Plata, Argentine food and drug monitoring agency ANMAT found that the affected patients had been administered fentanyl produced by pharmaceutical company HLB Pharma.

The other two patients were infected at a hospital in Rosario, Santa Fe. Nine of those people had succumbed to their illness by May 15. 

ANMAT ordered the company to halt operations while they conducted an investigation. The drug, which is a powerful synthetic opioid, acts as an analgesic and anesthetic used to treat severe pain for people who have just had surgery or are in advanced stages of cancer. 

The judiciary searched two of the firm’s laboratories in Buenos Aires province and a drug distribution center in Rosario. Authorities suspect that Laboratorio Ramallo, one of the labs in Buenos Aires, produced the contaminated batch, which the Rosario facility later distributed to the affected hospitals.