MP: Door-to-door survey to track children's health in Chhindwara's Parasia after cough syrup scare

Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh) [India], October 3 (ANI): A door-to-door health survey is underway in the Parasia development block of Chhindwara district to identify children's health after nine deaths in the last 30 days in the suspected cough syrup consumption case in the district, a senior official said.
Parasia Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Shubham Yadav said that almost all the children who died were aged under 5 years old, and as a precaution, a door-to-door survey was going on to ascertain children's health, especially focusing on whether any children had fallen ill again after the recovery.
"Nine children have died so far in the Parasia development block, and the last death occurred two days ago. In the preliminary examination, reports indicate kidney failure (acute kidney injury), but the exact cause is unknown," SDM Yadav told ANI.
He added that the water from surrounding areas of all the children who died were investigated and some samples were also sent to CISR-NEERI for examination.
"Teams came from Delhi and Bhopal and collected samples of rats and other germs that could be carriers. All those samples also came back negative. A district-level meeting was held and it revealed that both syrups (those are temporarily banned) may be contaminated. Therefore, keeping the lives of children in mind, action was taken to ban those syrups for a short period. A team of drug inspectors has arrived and is collecting samples. The report will be out in a week," the officer said.
SDM further explained that the Parasia development block has a population of nearly 2,84,000 and there are around 25,000 children aged below 5 years.
"We have conducted a door-to-door survey through ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) and ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife), and around 4658 children were found to have symptoms of vomiting, cough and viral fever. After that we conducted a kidney test, liver test and CBC. We received a report of 4411 children till this morning and all are normal. Rest the remaining report expected to be received by this evening," the SDM said.
He further added that so far 13 children were admitted till this morning, and of these, one had recovered. Four are undergoing treatment at the district hospital, two of them are doing well in recovery and the remaining two are undergoing treatment. Apart from this, eight children are undergoing treatment in Nagpur, five of them are performing well in recovery and three are undergoing treatment, he added.
"Almost all the children who died were aged under 5 years old. As a precaution, a door to door survey is continued to identify the children's health and special focus to ascertain whether any children falling ill again post recovery from illness before. Along with this, the medicine that we had banned has also been enforced effectively. I myself held a meeting with pharmacists and received their support. Private doctors are also advised to cooperate, and they told us that they were not attending any children's cases aged up to 10 years instead referring them to the district hospital," he added. (ANI)