WHO warns against three contaminated Indian cough syrups after deaths of 22 children

The World Health Organization on Monday issued a medical alert against the use of three cough syrups that were found to have diethylene glycol beyond the permissible limit, which can cause acute kidney and liver failure.

The alert warned against specific batches of the Coldrif Cough Syrup manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceutical in Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat-based Rednex Pharmaceuticals’ Respifresh TR and ReLife from Shape Pharma.

The action came after the deaths of 22 children in Madhya Pradesh in the past month linked to the consumption of Coldrif cough syrup. Deaths related to a generic cough syrup have also been reported from Rajasthan.

Several children, who had been suffering from fever and cold, consumed the Coldrif syrup, resulting in vomiting and difficulty urinating in Madhya Pradesh.

The first death was recorded on September 2.

On October 2, the Tamil Nadu director of drugs control found that the Coldrif samples were not of standard quality. Three days later, Madhya Pradesh also reported that one sample of Coldrif had 48.6% of diethylene glycol in it.

On October 6, the Madhya Pradesh drug controller found that a sample of Relife syrup had 0.616% diethylene glycol. A sample of Respifresh TR syrup was found to have 1.34% diethylene glycol.

The permissible limit of diethylene glycol as an impurity is 0.1%. However, drug officials Scroll spoke to...

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