Srinagar, Oct 8: Amidst the ongoing national outrage due to child deaths linked to cough syrups, authorities in J&K have ramped up market surveillance to ensure the drugs under scanner are not being sold here.
The steps, meant to safeguard lives, will be carried out in all districts, the authorities said, adding that doctors and pharmaceutical shop operators must ensure not to dispense such drugs to young children.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Commissioner, Food and Drug Control Organisation, Smita Sethi, said that intensive inspections were underway across J&K to ensure no suspicious products, including Coldrif cough syrup, which has come under scanner after deaths of children in some states of India, are available for sale.
“We are carrying out thorough market inspections for over-the-counter cough syrup sales and ensuring no Coldrif is being sold in J&K,” Sethi said.
She said approximately 500 shops had been inspected in J&K over the week, and no tainted cough syrup was recovered.
The crackdown comes in the wake of at least 14 child deaths in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where samples of Coldrif cough syrup, as per Union Ministry of Health reports, tested positive for toxic levels of diethylene glycol (DEG).
The syrup manufactured by Shreesan Pharmaceuticals had DEG, which is being linked to child deaths.
DEG contamination confirmation has prompted bans and recalls across multiple states.
Earlier in the week, Secretary of Health and Medical Education (H&ME) Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, in a high-level meeting, emphasised the need for rational medication practices. He urged that there was an urgent need to safeguard children’s health from such threats.
He directed doctors to avoid prescribing cough and cold medicines for children under two years of age.
The Health Ministry has reiterated that most coughs in young children are self-limiting and do not require syrups.
However, many doctors that Greater Kashmir spoke to said the medication dispensing also took place at the level of pharmacists. “The local, mohalla medical shops also need to ensure that they are not putting lives at risk with cold and cough medications,” he said.
The Health Department has also stressed enforcing strict guidelines on drug quality and creating awareness about safe medication use across J&K.
The cough syrup threat is not new.
In 2019-2020, at least 17 children died in Udhampur district after consuming a cough syrup, which was also contaminated with DEG and manufactured in Himachal Pradesh. Similar deaths have been reported in other parts of the country and abroad as well. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), following child deaths, has launched risk-based inspections at manufacturing units in six states. The Union Health Ministry has issued advisories for good manufacturing practices and promoting the rational use of cough syrups among children.
