The tragic death of 23 children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan recently after consuming contaminated cough syrup has exposed the chinks in India’s drug regulatory policy, surveillance and vigilance system, and the state of public health.

People dying due to drugs containing diethylene glycol (DEG)—an industrial solvent used in antifreeze, paints, brake fluids, and plastics—is rare but not unprecedented. Such tragedies have been reported in the past in India as well as abroad.

India’s first case of DEG deaths was recorded in 1972, when 15 children died in Madras (now Chennai). In 1986, 14 people died in Mumbai; in 1988, 11 died in Bihar; and in 1998, as many as 33 children lost their lives in Gurgaon, while 150 children were hospitalised with acute kidney failure in Delhi. Between Decemb

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