DC Edit | Cough Syrups: Keep Kids Safe
The toll at home had begun even earlier with deaths of children reported as early as 2019
It is a sordid tale of greed and lax governance that allowed Indian cough syrups to be sold freely after some of their formulations came under a cloud almost three years ago with multiple deaths of young children in different countries like The Gambia, Uzbekistan and Iraq. The toll at home had begun even earlier with deaths of children reported as early as 2019.
Not even the most recent deaths — of at least 14 children in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — seem to have stirred the conscience of the drug maker, people in the supply chain and doctors who have been prescribing the cough syrup from a particular manufacturer in Tamil Nadu near Chennai despite an alert having been put out by the Telangana drug control authority on September 4 that batches of the medicine allegedly contained the toxic substance Diethylene Glycol (DEG).
The warning notwithstanding, the drug continued to be on sale for treating children who should never have been administered the medicine. For doctors, the lure of commissions offered by sales representatives of manufacturers may have been hard to resist. One of them was said to have fainted when asked to sample the drug that had already claimed lives with impoverished parents not having the funds to keep their children on dialysis.
For all the mayhem caused by a toxic byproduct of alcohol, all the Central authority did was to put out the pedantic advisory on Sunday that cough syrup sale must meet norms and that their paediatric use must be “rational” and that at most times they are not needed at all since cough in children could be self-limiting.
The question to be asked is whether the pharmaceutical industry or medical professionals care at all about the safety of patients even when they are supposed to be treating people for minor ailments like cough or cold. State governments have been busy announcing solatium of up to `4 lakh per death while the opposition cries foul over the quantum of compensation.
Do Indian lives carry so little value? And what about all the complaints that came in globally about the safety record of Indian cough syrups? Does Indian commerce have a conscience at all is the question.