now to a concerning story. The World Health Organisation has issued a global alert about an Indian made cold syrup called Cold out, which is sold in Iraq that was contaminated with toxic chemicals. A sample of the cough syrup cold out was obtained from Iraq and submitted for analysis. The WHO said that the sample was found to be containing unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants. These are toxic to humans when consumed and can prove to be fatal, according to the World Health Organisation. This is the sixth warning that the WHO has issued in just the past year regarding India made syrups or India made medications. My colleague Omar Omar Sudi joining us for more on this and Omar. This particular syrup was manufactured by a firm based in Chennai and this is the sixth India made drug that has come under scanner. So first it does hurt India's image of pharmacy for the world that the government was trying to pitch and secondly, also explain to us what are the kind of health issues that the WHO is talking about that could be a result of this cough syrup being consumed Yes, Indeed, this was manufactured by a Chennai based man lab, Fortes Labs, and it was for a Mumbai based Maharashtra based company that this called out was manufactured when it was exported. It is not very clear that could also be critical for two reasons. One that, as you mentioned, this, uh, WO has given the alert for this particular batch that was tested in Iraq and said that it can cause symptoms like vomiting, headache and kind of a sensation and also kidney damage, all of which could actually be fatal if consumed by Children. And therefore they have said that wherever in any country, any kind of an adverse reaction needs to be reported. And that's why they have kind of alerted the authorities to say that wherever you see any problem with consumption of this particular medicine, you should put out the alert because they have issued the alert only with respect to the specific bag that had been exported to Iraq. The date that I mentioned is important because, like you mentioned, there have been actually about seven products out of India that have been alerted by the WO. And these include, of course, cough syrups that are said to have caused deaths of Children in Gambia, Uzbekistan as well as Cameroon. Of course, the union government has said that they had written to these countries and only Uzbekistan had in fact responded. But the government government taking this very seriously because, as you mentioned, India is the pharmacy to the world and in fact export had gone up in the last year from $17.6 million to worth of $17.6 million and therefore it's a big product of export and the government had brought in certain guidelines. They had in fact sent out teams to more than 100 units which were monitored, and 71 of them were issued notices. 18 had been closed shut and from the first of June they had said that any export going out of India of these car syrups needs to be analysed by a government lab and a certificate needs to be presented to the Director General of foreign Trade and only after that analysis certificate is issued can an export happen. So what we would need to find out is one of course, this lab itself coming under the scanner now. And when exactly this export had happened back to you, Omar. Thanks very much for joining us. And just a quick clarification from you, Omar. Whether these cough syrups were being sold in India, or were they only in Iran. Iraq. I beg your pardon? This one appears to be something that is exported completely exported. Point out is that, uh, has been exported to multiple countries, is what we are being told and in this case, only the batch that has been found in Iraq except to contain substandard or contaminated material back to you.
