WHO cautions against consuming two India-made cough syrups

In a recent incident, the World Health Organization (WHO) has linked the death of 19 Uzbekistan kids to cough syrups made in India. As per the recommendation by WHO, there are two India-made cough syrups that should not be prescribed to children. Both the syrups are manufactured at Marion Biotech, a pharmaceutical company based in Noida.

WHO in a statement, said that both the cough syrups should not be taken by children after they were linked to 19 deaths in Uzbekistan. The two cough syrups go by the names of AMBRONOL syrup and DOK-1 Max syrup. Laboratory analysis on both the syrups have found that the syrups contained intolerable amounts of di-ethylene glycol. These products fail to meet the quality standards and hence, are out of specifications.

In the alert issued, the UN health agency said that the products are unsafe for human consumption. Especially in case of children, it may cause serious internal injury or might even lead to death. The Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration department canceled the production license of the Noida based pharmaceutical company.

This incident comes a month after WHO issued yet another alert regarding four contaminated, unsafe cough syrups. The syrups were manufactured by another Indian company, Maiden Pharma.