A total of 100 people have died from taking medicines contaminated with diethylene glycol since the first documented poisonings were reported last October, Panama's Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

The investigation into the deaths of another 203 people is still under way to make clear if diethylene glycol poisoning is behind the deaths, prosecutors said.

The poisonings first surfaced in the summer of 2006 as many people died mysteriously with symptoms such as kidney damages and physical paralysis.

Investigators confirmed in October that the people had died of diethylene glycol poisoning.

Panama's Medicom company allegedly sold tainted ingredients to a pharmaceutical factory, which used them to produce medicines.

Panama could become the country with the most deaths caused by diethylene glycol poisoning, authorities said.

A total of 200 people died in Bangladesh earlier in the 1990s and 105 people died in 1937 in the United States from diethylene glycol poisoning.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2007)