During the ongoing controversy over poisonous cough syrups which killed a few children in Madhya Pradesh, one more shocking case has emerged, this time from a government hospital in Gwalior district of MP. Authorities on Thursday (16th October) stated that worms were reportedly discovered in a bottle of antibiotic medication prescribed to a child at the hospital in Morar town.
The complaint was made to the officials by the mother of the child after she saw worms in a bottle of Azithromycin oral suspension, a generic medicine produced by a Madhya Pradesh-based firm. The drug is regularly prescribed to children who have infections. The medicine was a generic brand manufactured by a company based in Madhya Pradesh.
Following the complaint, the hospital administration sealed the entire stock of the antibiotic and launched an immediate investigation. “A woman at the government hospital in Morar complained of worms in a bottle of Azithromycin oral suspension,” said Drug Inspector Anubhuti Sharma. She added that although the bottle was already open when it was brought in, the matter was taken seridrously and checked right away.
Authorities have seized all 306 bottles of the medicine that were either stored or distributed at the Morar hospital. A preliminary inspection of a few bottles did not show any visible contamination, but samples have been sent to a state laboratory in Bhopal for testing. Another sample will be sent to the Central Drug Laboratory in Kolkata for further tests, officials added.
This is happening when Madhya Pradesh is already under national and international attention due to the deaths of 24 children in Chhindwara district. The children had died due to Coldrif cough syrup, which contained poisonous diethylene glycol (DEG).
The World Health Organization (WHO) has since issued a global alert against three Indian-made syrups, Coldrif, Respifresh TR, and ReLife, describing them as “substandard and unsafe for use.”
WHO has alerted that these tainted syrups pose a serious threat and may lead to severe, potentially life-threatening illness. The global body has requested all members to continue being highly vigilant and report immediately if they find any of the mentioned syrups in their domestic markets.
