6-yr-old dies at Jaipur hospital; parents claim boy was given cough syrup at home in Churu

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A six-year-old boy suffering from acute brain fever died at the state-run JK Lon Hospital in Jaipur on Saturday, hours after he was referred there from Churu, where, his parents claimed, the child was given a cough syrup at home.

The child was admitted to a hospital in Churu for three days. His parents claimed they gave him a cough syrup at home before the boy was hospitalised, an official said.

“Anas was admitted to the JK Lon hospital at 4 am on Saturday and he died at 10 am. The child was suffering from acute brain fever,” the official said.

This comes amid reports of deaths of 11 children, nine in Madhya Pradesh and two in Rajasthan, allegedly linked to contaminated cough syrup.

The two deaths in Rajasthan were reported from Bharatpur and Sikar, and it is alleged that they were given a cough syrup under the free medicine scheme at government hospitals.

However, officials claimed that the cough syrup in question was found safe after testing at a government laboratory.

State health minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar also said there was no adulteration or fault, whatsoever, in the medicine.

“We got the medicine checked twice. First our drug controller tested it and then the RMSCL tested it. Nothing wrong was found in it,” Khimsar said.