No Contamination Found In Cough Syrup Linked To Child Deaths, Say Drug Regulator Sources
India’s central drug regulator has said that initial tests have found no contamination in the Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide cough syrup that has been linked to the deaths of more than 10 children across Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Sources within the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Friday stated that reports suggesting the syrup was contaminated were “unsubstantiated and baseless.”
This preliminary clean chit comes despite the deaths of nine children from kidney failure in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district and at least two deaths and several illnesses in Rajasthan, all allegedly after consuming the syrup. The medication, manufactured by Jaipur-based Kaysons, is supplied to government hospitals and has a concerning track record, with reports indicating that 40 of its samples have failed quality tests over the past two years.The nationwide alarm was raised after a series of incidents in Rajasthan, where several children fell ill after taking the syrup.
In a telling incident, a doctor at a government hospital in Bharatpur reportedly fell ill with adverse symptoms after consuming the syrup himself to demonstrate its safety. These events prompted an immediate halt in the distribution of the drug and launched separate investigations by state drug authorities.While the CDSCO has not found contamination in its testing so far, other probes are yielding different clues.
Sources in the Union Health Ministry stated that blood reports of nearly 500 people in Madhya Pradesh, tested by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), were negative for any infectious disease. This finding adds weight to the theory that the cause of the illnesses and deaths is not an infection, keeping the focus firmly on the quality and composition of the cough syrup itself.
