The news about the cough syrup’coldrif’ is a disturbing reminder of the sorry state of health regulation standards and the criminal neglect of the health of the public especially the poor.
Over the last month at least 12 cases of deaths of children have been reported in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh The state health departments have suspected involvement of the cough syrup in these deaths.
The common manifestations have been acute renal failure and suspected cause is presence of high level of diethyl glycol in the syrup. The contaminant is known to cause renal damage.
It reminds us of the global furor caused by a similar outbreak in Gambia in 2023, when 66 children under 5 years of age were reported dead in a span of one month by acute renal failure.
Samples of the syrup were run for quality checks in 4 countries and high levels of diethyl and ethyl glycol were found. The product was manufactured by a company “Maiden pharmaceutical “ from Haryana.
The incident resulted in severe damage to the reputation of Indian pharmaceutical sector, which enjoyed strong quality reputation and were the leading suppliers of medicines in Africa and for generic medicines across the world.
As the incident involved poor sub-Saharan African children, it was soon forgotten. This time it has occurred in India. While the central government and its drug control agencies have cleared the product, of any harmful content or contamination, many states including bjp ruled states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have banned the distribution and sale of the syrup.
Another important aspect is the poor quality control in government drug supplies. Very often we see doctors advising patients to buy medicines from outside, saying that the hospital supplies are sub standard and may not give desired results.
Apart from medicines, even the quality control of food products are grossly inadequate. It occurs that the state does not have the capacity to deliver quality checks. Regulatory marks like agmark have little credibility.
Any effort to enforce standards, are rife with corruption and with poor awareness don’t find public support either. A few years back, samples of branded honey were checked for adulteration and all leading brands failed the tests including much hyped patanjali products.
The entire institutional and statutory framework for regulating drug and food safety needs serious debate and overhaul.
