Another Infant Death in Chhindwara Casts Shadow Over Pharmaceutical Safety in Madhya Pradesh

The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh is reeling from yet another suspected cough syrup tragedy, as a five-month-old baby girl from the Chhindwara district has tragically died, allegedly within hours of being administered an Ayurvedic cough and cold remedy. This heartbreaking incident comes just weeks after the region was shaken by a contamination scandal involving an allopathic cough syrup that claimed the lives of over two dozen children.

The Latest Tragedy: An Ayurvedic Syrup Under Scrutiny

The latest fatality involves Ruhi Minote, an infant from the Bichhua area of Chhindwara, who was suffering from a cough and cold. Her family reportedly purchased an Ayurvedic cough syrup and medicinal powder over-the-counter from a local medical store on October 27, without a doctor’s prescription. According to the baby’s father, her condition deteriorated rapidly shortly after she was given the syrup, and she stopped breathing early Thursday morning. She was declared brought dead at the Bichua Community Health Centre.

Authorities have acted swiftly, sealing the local medical store, Kurethe Medical Store, and seizing the remaining stock of the Ayurvedic syrup and other medications. Samples of the product, as well as the infant’s viscera, have been sent to a forensic science laboratory for testing to determine the exact cause of death. Officials have registered a case of unnatural death, and the investigation will examine the case under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, particularly in light of the unregulated sale of infant formulations.

The infant’s death underscores the pervasive issue of self-medication and the easy availability of over-the-counter drugs, even those not explicitly prescribed for infants, at local pharmacies. District officials noted that strict instructions had recently been issued to chemists to avoid selling cough syrups to children under one year without a doctor’s explicit medical advice.

A Repeated Crisis: The Coldrif Tragedy

This new case has reignited public outrage and drawn national attention back to Chhindwara, which is still grappling with the fallout from a previous, far larger pharmaceutical disaster. In September and October, at least 25 children, mostly under the age of five, in Chhindwara and neighboring Betul districts died due to acute kidney failure. The deaths were linked to Coldrif cough syrup, an allopathic medicine manufactured by a Tamil Nadu-based firm, Sresan Pharmaceuticals.

Laboratory testing had revealed that the contaminated batches of Coldrif contained dangerously high levels of Diethylene Glycol (DEG), a toxic industrial solvent, exceeding the permissible limit by hundreds of times. This led to a public health crisis, a ban on the contaminated syrup in several states, and a global alert from the World Health Organization (WHO) over three Indian-made syrups, including Coldrif.

The arrests in the Coldrif case have included the manufacturer’s owner, the local paediatrician who allegedly prescribed the syrup to most of the victims, and a medical representative of the company. The tragedy exposed deep systemic failures in the country’s drug regulatory framework and quality control mechanisms.

Systemic Lapses and Calls for Reform

The back-to-back incidents point to significant and alarming gaps in India’s pharmaceutical safety oversight, often referred to as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’. The recurrence of DEG contamination and the unregulated sale of potentially harmful remedies for infants highlight the urgent need for a stringent regulatory overhaul:

• Weak Enforcement: Critics argue that punitive actions often fail to match the severity of the crime, with recent legislative amendments in some cases reducing the mandatory minimum imprisonment for manufacturing substandard drugs.
• Quality Control: The latest incident involving an Ayurvedic syrup raises concerns about the quality control and regulatory oversight of traditional and herbal medicines, which are often purchased over-the-counter without a prescription.
• Accountability: Public health experts continue to demand more rigorous testing of raw materials, better monitoring of manufacturing practices, and greater accountability across the entire drug supply chain, from the manufacturer to the dispensing chemist.

As the authorities await the post-mortem and forensic reports in the five-month-old’s death, the focus remains on ensuring that the lessons from the previous tragic incidents are finally learned, and that decisive measures are taken to safeguard the lives of children from what appears to be a systemic public health vulnerability.