In yet another death of a child in Madhya Pradesh allegedly due to the consumption of a toxic cough syrup, a five-month-old girl died in the Chhindwara district allegedly after consuming an ayurvedic cough syrup and a medicinal powder, purchased by her parents over the counter from a medicine store in the district.
The latest fatality has taken the death toll of children to 27 in the state. The official figure, however, is 25.
As per Chaurai Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Prabhat Mishra, Ruhi Minote, the infant who was suffering from cold and cough, died on Thursday.
The officer said that the girl’s family had purchased an ayurvedic cough syrup and some medicinal powder from Kuratha Medical Shop four days earlier.
The SDM stated that following the infant’s death, the medical shop was sealed, and a case of unnatural death was registered and the police are investigating. Samples of the syrup and powder have been sent for testing.
He informed that the viscera have been sent to the forensic science laboratory (FSL) in Jabalpur, and the post-mortem report is awaited.
This is the first death of a kid linked to the consumption of an ayurvedic cough syrup.
Earlier, 26 deaths of kids — 23 from the Chhindwara district, two from the Betul district, and one from the Pandhurna district had occurred due to kidney failure allegedly due to the consumption of the now banned allopathic toxic cough syrup ‘Coldrif’.
Tests on the ‘Coldrif’ syrup, manufactured by the since arrested Ranganathan Govindan’s ‘M/s Sresan Pharmaceuticals’ of Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu, had revealed that it contained 48.6 per cent Diethylene Glycol, a highly poisonous substance, and considered fatal for kids.