'Killer Cough Syrup' Tragedy: 22 Children Dead, India In Shock

It's a heartbreaking development that has shaken India. Police have arrested the owner of Sresan Pharmaceuticals, the company behind the contaminated Coldrif cough syrup linked to the deaths of at least 22 children under the age of five in Madhya Pradesh. These young lives-lost over the past month in districts like Chhindwara-were cut short by a toxic industrial solvent, diethylene glycol, found at nearly 500 times the safe limit in the syrup. The tragedy echoes the 2022 Gambia incident, where more than 70 children died after consuming similar Indian-made medicines, a disaster that severely tarnished India's reputation as a global pharmaceutical hub. Authorities have now banned Coldrif nationwide, while two more brands-Respifresh and Relife-have been flagged for containing the same deadly toxin. The World Health Organization (WHO) has sought details from India on possible exports and warned of a "regulatory gap" in domestic testing that allows such dangerous products to slip through.