16 children and a medicine that ended up killing them — the cough syrup tragedy in Madhya Pradesh has exposed massive gaps in drug testing processes that led to children’s deaths and left their families shattered.
As governments and the administrative machinery issue bans and seize stocks in a belated response to the tragedy, the families are trying to come to terms with the crushing reality that what they fed their children as medicine was poison.
The First Victims
The tragedy started unfolding in the second half of August in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district. The first death took place early in September, and within a fortnight, six children under the age of five had died of kidney failure. They had one thing in common — they were suffering from cough and cold, and mild fever, and neighbourhood doctors had prescribed them routine medicines, including a cough syrup. Within days, the symptoms became worse, and urine output decreased. They were diagnosed with kidney infections, and dialysis began. Within days, the children died, some of them at Nagpur in neighbouring Maharashtra.
A kidney biopsy led to a shocking revelation — the children’s kidneys showed the presence of diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical often associated with pharmaceutical poisoning. Most of them had been administered Coldrif and Nextro-DS syrups.
In the days that followed, the death count climbed to 16. The deaths of four children in Rajasthan were also linked to cough syrups, a household medicine routinely administered to children.
Parents Recount Horror
Mohammed Amin Khan had taken his five-year-old son Adnan to Dr Praveen Soni, who has now been arrested for negligence. “After he gave him the syrup, he started throwing up. Then he stopped urinating. We later found it was a kidney infection and took him to Nagpur. He died there.”
The parents of another victim, Vikas (3), said he was down with a fever and they took him to Dr Soni. “We gave him medicines as prescribed. He started throwing up. The doctor then prescribed an injection. My son stopped urinating. We first took him to Chhindwara and then to Nagpur,” Vikas’s father said.
The parents of each of the little victims shared a similar account of how their sons and daughters started vomiting, stopped urinating, and were then diagnosed with an acute kidney infection that eventually claimed their lives.
Seven-year-old Devansh Yaduvanshi’s mother remembers every moment of her lost son’s suffering. “The first dialysis lasted one and a half hours. The next day, three hours. Then five. He was slipping away. On the last day, the doctor said they had done all they could.”
Denial, And Delayed Action
Amid media reports about a suspected cough syrup link behind the deaths of so many children, Madhya Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Rajendra Shukla initially denied any cough syrup contamination. On October 1, he said, “Samples of medicines given to the children have been sent to a laboratory in Nagpur. Preliminary investigation found no contamination in the syrup.” The minister also said the state government is handling the matter very seriously. He later clarified that he spoke only about samples of three medicines sent for testing.
At the centre of the probe was Coldrif, a cough syrup manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceuticals in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram. On October 2, the Tamil Nadu drug control authorities declared that the Coldrif syrup sample they tested was adulterated. The sample, the report said, contained diethylene glycol (48.6% w/v), a poisonous substance “which may render the contents injurious to health”.
The Madhya Pradesh government moved only on October 4, when Chief Minister Mohan Yadav held Coldrif cough syrup responsible for the child deaths and ordered a blanket ban on its sale. The Deputy Chief Minister later termed the deaths as “unfortunate” and assured strict action against those responsible.
What’s In The Cough Syrup
The samples of Coldrif cough syrup revealed a high concentration of a chemical, diethylene glycol. Diethylene glycol is used in the manufacture of printing ink, glue, brake fluid, and lubricants. Its consumption can cause severe kidney, liver, and nervous system damage in humans.
Children are more vulnerable because even tiny amounts of this chemical can be fatal for them. The symptoms begin with nausea, abdominal pain, and reduced urination. In severe cases, this progresses rapidly to acute kidney failure, seizures, and death.
The World Health Organisation has linked cough syrups contaminated with diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol to over 300 child deaths worldwide since 2022. One such disaster played out in Gambia in 2022, when at least 70 children died after consuming contaminated cough syrups.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramnagar district had reported deaths of 17 children in 2020, and an investigation linked them to the consumption of a faulty batch of Coldbest PC cough syrup that contained 34.97 per cent of diethylene glycol.
Centre’s Big Warning To States
With the cough syrup tragedy playing out across multiple states, the Centre has stepped in. Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava has chaired a high-level meeting with states and Union Territories and directed them to ensure “rational” use of cough syrups, particularly among children. The Union Health Ministry has told the states that most coughs are self-limiting and do not require pharmacological treatment.
Dr Rajiv Bahl, the Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research, said children should not be prescribed cough syrups or any combination of drugs to prevent any side effects. He also advised states to strengthen coordination for rapid response to any calamity.
Director General of Health Services, Dr Sunita Sharma, said cough medications have minimal proven benefit in children but carry significant risks.
A Father Sold Auto-Rickshaw, Another Sold Land
Most victims of the cough syrup tragedy come from underprivileged families for whom a visit to the doctor was a dent in their monthly budget. As a bout of cough and cold turned to a full-blown crisis, these families sold and mortgaged all they had to save their children, but failed. As the state government announces a Rs 4 lakh compensation for the family of each victim, they wonder what to do with the money when their child is gone.
Yasin Khan, a 30-year-old auto-rickshaw operator, has not slept since he lost his three-year-old Usaid. The family spent over Rs 4 lakh in its desperate attempt to save the child. Yasin also sold his auto-rickshaw, the source of his livelihood. “I thought if I could save him, I could buy another auto-rickshaw. Now there’s no son, no work, and no hope.”
Prakash Yaduvanshi has lost his son Devansh (7). To arrange the Rs 7 lakh he spent on his treatment, he mortgaged his farm, pawned his wife’s jewellery, and borrowed from everyone he knew. “I am a paralytic patient. We were already struggling.” The family has nothing left now and nothing to lose. Prakash says he will approach the courts.
Four-year-old Kabir was taken to Nagpur and then to Bhopal, but could not be saved. His father, Kamlesh, says he mortgaged his land for Rs 2.5 lakh. “I thought money could save him. But money ran out before his breath did.”
In the narrow lanes of Madhya Pradesh’s Parasia block, grief hangs heavy. The silence of death is at times pierced by the wail of a mother who clutches her child’s clothes, searching for his or her smell. “We don’t want money. We want justice for every child who was given that poison, thinking it was medicine,” says Usaid’s mother.