Six MP children die amid probe into contaminated cough syrup

Six children in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district have died from acute kidney failure between September 4 and September 26, and health authorities have launched a multiagency probe amid suspicions that contaminated cough syrup may be involved, officials said. Teams from the National Centre for Disease Control and the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Project have been deployed, and samples from patients, water sources, insects and medicines have been collected for laboratory testing.

Local health officials said the affected children first developed common respiratory symptoms such as cough, cold and fever before their conditions deteriorated and kidney function failed. Chief Medical and Health Officer Naresh Gunnade said investigators have sent human and other samples to laboratories and suspended the sale of certain cough syrups found in the homes of the deceased while tests are under way. He said recent similar clusters had been reported from Betul, Seoni and Pandhurna, and that five children suspected to be affected had been referred for treatment to Government Medical College, Nagpur.

District collector Sheelendra Singh ordered the ban on two specific syrups in...