NEW DELHI: The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has asked WHO to share more details about the initial illness, signs and symptoms and treatment provided to the Gambian children who died allegedly after consuming contaminated cough syrups sold by an Indian pharmaceutical company.
The clinical features and the treatment received by the children as shared by WHO so far are inadequate to determine the aetiology (cause of death), the DCGI has said in an email sent to the WHO representative. This follows the first meeting of the technical expert committee constituted by the Union health ministry to examine and analyse the details of the adverse events and all related details of the mass deaths shared by the UN body.
According to the DCGI, the committee has observed that the information provided so far by WHO was inadequate to reach a conclusion. The committee has said that the UN body needed to furnish details of initial illness, sign and symptoms, treatment received before and after hospitalisation, the names and brands of the drug formulations used in the treatment before and after hospitalisation, their manufacturers and their expiry among others. It has also sought a report of the verbal autopsy.