Kerala health minister Veena George said on Monday that children under 12 years should not be given any medicine without a doctor’s prescription.
She constituted a three-member expert committee comprising the state drugs controller, child health nodal officer and the Kerala president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics to formulate special guidelines on the use of cough syrups in children.
“Even old prescriptions should not be taken to medical shops to buy medicines for children. It should be recalled that dosages for children are determined based on their weight. No two children are alike and hence a particular dose that may be prescribed to one child can very well cause harm to another. I’ve asked the drugs controller to probe whether there is any reported case in Kerala related to the Coldrif cough syrup,”
George said.
Following a high-level meeting, George told the media that Kerala had not
reported any adverse reactions after having Coldrif cough syrup, which is under the lens after deaths of kids in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. She urged the drugs
controller to intensify awareness campaigns among parents and also the public at large.