JAIPUR: A two-year-old in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, has died after consuming cough syrup, Cipra, from the Chief Minister's free medicine scheme. This is the third child death in the past fortnight linked to the same syrup. Earlier, a two-year-old in Bayana and a five-year-old in Sikar also died.
In the latest case from Luhasa village in Bharatpur, two-year-old Tirthraj allegedly died after consuming the cough syrup. His father, Nihal Singh, claims that on September 23rd, when the child had a minor cough and cold, he was taken to the Government Sub-District Hospital, where he was given the cough syrup.
When his condition worsened, he was taken back to the hospital. A little later, Tirthraj was referred to Bharatpur and after that to Jaipur. The two-year-old child finally died during treatment at Jaipur's JK Lon Hospital on September 27th.
The government had set up a three-member committee to probe the child deaths. However, instead of taking strict action against those responsible, efforts are now underway to clear Caresons Pharma's Dextromethorphan HBR syrup, which is being blamed for the fatalities.
The Medical Department, releasing its first report on the case, claimed that doctors did not prescribe the syrup to the deceased children; their families administered the syrup when they fell ill, which improved their health. But subsequently, their condition worsened and they died.
This virtually amounts to a clean chit to officials, doctors and the company that supplied the questionable cough syrup. But with a second child death in Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma’s home district of Bharatpur, public anger and the pressure to nab the culprits have intensified.