It began quietly on a rainy August afternoon in Madhya Pradesh. It was around 3 pm on August 16, when six-year-old Divyansh Yaduvanshi developed a fever. His temperature read 100 degrees Fahrenheit – mild enough to seem harmless, yet enough to worry his father, Prakash Yaduvanshi, a small farmer from Duddi village in Parasia tehsil of Chhindwara district.

The next morning, Prakash took his son to Dr Pravin Soni in Parasia, about five to six kilometres from their village. A well-known child specialist, Dr Soni’s clinic was the first stop for most parents in the region. After a brief examination, he prescribed Indiclav tablets and a cold syrup named Coldrif – to be given twice and four times a day, respectively.

No one in this quiet corner of the country could have imagined that the syrup – manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceuticals in Tamil Nadu – contained diethylene glycol, a toxic industrial solvent used in brake fluid and antifreeze. Within weeks, Coldrif would be linked to one of the worst medical tragedies the region had ever seen. 

Over the next seven weeks, 17 children, including Divyansh, died and six more were hospitalised in neighbouring Nagpur, Maharashtra – all with the same symptoms, all with one common medicine on their prescriptions: Coldrif.

Doctors in Nagpur had raised the alarm about suspected diethylene glycol poisoning as early as September 22. Yet, the Madhya Pradesh government denied any link between the syrup and the deaths until October 3, when Tamil Nadu’s drug testing laboratory confirmed the syrup contained 48.6 percent diethylene glycol and flagged more than 364 manufacturing violations at Sresan Pharmaceuticals. The delay proved deadly – children continued taking the contaminated syrup even as families sold land and jewellery to fund treatments in a desperate race against poison. What it also exposed was public health infrastructure struggling to tackle a crisis. 

Now, amid mounting outrage, the Madhya Pradesh government has arrested one doctor who prescribed the medicines and acted against three officials. But all of this is being seen as a kneejerk response.

The tragedy echoes a chillingly similar episode in Gambia in 2022, where 66 children died after consuming cough syrup tainted with diethylene glycol, manufactured by an Indian firm.

Sajid added, “The lab assistant gave us a small container and told us to bring his urine when he was ready. We went back to the hospital. We waited, but he didn’t pass urine the entire night.” 

The next morning, his parents grew worried and informed Dr Soni. Even the doctor found it alarming. He advised the family to take Adnan to Chhindwara District Hospital. But fearing poor facilities there, the family instead went to Dr Pravin Nahar’s private hospital in the city.

After some tests, Dr Nahar informed the family that Adnan’s creatinine levels were very high and his kidneys were not functioning properly. The family decided to rush him to Nagpur, about two hours from Chhindwara. On August 29, Adnan was admitted to NSH........

© newslaundry