India halts production of cough syrups suspected of links to child deaths
By DAW NGUYEN, The Straits Times, Singapore
Published July 14, 2014
Reuters
SINGAPORE, July 13 (Reuters) – Singapore will suspend production of cough syrup that has been put on the market as a possible cause of sudden infant death syndrome in children in the city-state, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry has told manufacturers and distributors that Singapore will not buy cough syrup products that have not undergone the necessary safety tests or undergone any changes to comply with new standards, said a ministry spokesman.
The decision takes effect at midnight Singapore time, the spokesman said.
The Health Ministry on Tuesday said it will seek to ban cough syrup on the market, after the local branch of the Allergy Research and Testing Centre (ARTC) linked the use of the remedy to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) among infants in six cities.
The tests will be conducted at ARTC, not by the ministry, and the ministry will rely on the results of tests conducted by the centre, said the spokesman.
“We have no further information to share,” he added.
The ministry spokesman said he had no information on the status of the ARTC tests, which would determine if a cough syrup product had a causal relationship with the deaths of children under five years of age.
SIDS, a sudden, unexpected infant death syndrome, is the leading cause of sudden, unexpected deaths in infants in Singapore.
SIDS is caused by sudden infant death syndrome, also called sudden infant death, an unexplained and unexpected death of an infant under one year old.
In the six cities that have received the ARTC report, the ARTC has identified cough syrup products that are causing the deaths.
Singapore has not banned the products in any of the six cities. In January, Singapore banned the use of any medicines with a significant risk of causing harm or injury to babies under the age of six months