The article provides a historical background regarding the identification and quantification of diethylene glycol (DEG) in pharmaceutical products that caused mass poisoning in Nigeria, Haiti, and Panama. It mentions that a timely public health response was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia because they were able to identify DEG contamination within 24 hours of the incident. Moreover, they accomplished the identification of a biochemical marker that can differentiate between those who ingested DEG and those who did not. The article concludes that a faster analytical tool and a standardized methodology are needed to respond to future epidemics.