PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
Teams of the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA) department conducted raids on the medical stores and children’s hospitals in Dehradun on Tuesday to check for the presence of the banned cough syrups.
The FDA additional commissioner and drug controller Tajber Singh Jaggi said that the teams of the department found that many medical stores had inventories of syrups having Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide, Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Phenylephrine Hydrochloride. He said that the State government has advised that the cough syrups should not be administered to children below two years of age.
Jaggi said that the teams collected six samples of cough syrup which will be sent to the laboratory for testing. He said the banned cough syrups Coldrif, Respifresh TR and Relife were not found in any of the medical stores.
The drug controller warned that strict action would be taken against the medical stores if banned medicines are found in their inventory.
Following deaths of children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan due to the cough syrup, the Uttarakhand government has imposed a ban on sale of cough syrup for children below two years of age.
The Health secretary R Rajesh Kumar has directed the department to ensure that banned cough syrups are not sold in the medical stores of the State. He said that the cough syrup should be used only on the advice of a specialist doctor.
