WHO official: India still needs to make additional efforts to solve the toxic cough medicine crisis health

World Health Organization official Rutundo Quana told Reuters that India still needs to do more work to stop sales of toxic cough syrup, although some progress has been made, after at least 24 children died after taking the locally made medicine.

The children died after consuming Coldrive cough syrup manufactured by Srisan Pharmaceuticals, which tests showed contained the toxic substance diethylene glycol in quantities approximately 500 times the permissible limit.

These results came only two years after global pledges to tighten the drug control system after the death of at least 300 children around the world due to similar toxins in syrup medications made in India and Indonesia.

But the World Health Organization said implementation problems remain.

“They have made some progress,” Quanah said, referring to a new requirement that drugs be tested in India for contaminants such as diethylene and ethylene glycol before export.

However, there is no such requirement for drinking medicines sold locally, a “regulatory gap” noted by the World Health Organization.