New Delhi: Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel on Tuesday reported to the Rajya Sabha that there have been past incidents of children’s deaths allegedly linked to contaminated cough syrup.

The World Health Organization periodically issues medical product alerts and has released one such alert. It indicated that laboratory analyses of certain Indian drug products revealed unacceptable levels of diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol as contaminants, according to her written response.

Several manufacturers in India produce cough syrups, which are sold and distributed based on their composition and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) under various brand names, as mentioned by Patel.

She clarified, “There are no deaths attributed to cough syrups. However, there have been isolated reports of contaminated cough syrup allegedly causing children’s deaths in the past.”