India investigates four cough syrups following a WHO alert about 66 child deaths in the Gambia

Digital Desk: After the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that four cough syrups manufactured by a Haryana-based pharmaceutical firm could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia, the government launched an investigation.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare sources, the WHO notified the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on September 29 about the cough syrups. According to the sources, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization immediately took up the matter with the Haryana regulatory authority and launched a thorough investigation.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare sources, the WHO notified the Drugs Controller General of India(DCGI).

According to sources, M/s Maiden Pharmaceutical Limited in Haryana's Sonepat manufactured cough syrups. According to the information available at this time, the firm appears to have exported these products only to The Gambia. The company has yet to respond to the charges. The company's administrative office in Pitampura, Delhi, was discovered closed this morning.

The WHO has warned that the syrups may have been distributed outside of the West African country, posing a global risk.

According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the four cold and cough syrups "have been potentially linked to acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children."

According to ministry sources, WHO has yet to provide the "exact one-to-one causal relation of death." They added that the WHO has yet to share the details and photos of the labels confirming the product's manufacturer.

The WHO has not yet provided information on when these deaths occurred.

According to sources, samples of the four cough syrups will now be tested in central and regional laboratories, with results expected in two days. According to the sources, any drug exported from India is tested by the receiving country per protocol. According to the sources, the question is why the contamination was not detected during testing in The Gambia. They also claimed that the WHO had not informed them whether the drugs had been used in the West African country without being tested.

The four products are Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup, according to the WHO alert.

"To date, the stated manufacturer has not provided WHO with guarantees on the safety and quality of these products," according to the alert, adding that laboratory analysis of product samples "confirms that they contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants."

It added that the toxic effect "can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state, and acute kidney injury which may lead to death."