One person has died and six more have been hospitalised in eastern India after consuming antibiotic tablets believed to be from the same batch blamed for more than a dozen sterilisation deaths, hospital officials say.
“They came with the medicine strips in their hand … they complained of vomiting, dizziness and swelling in the feet,” an official at the Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences said.
“It looks like most of the sterilisation patients might be affected due to this medicine.”
The latest death means 14 people have died after consuming the drugs used in India’s free sterilisation program.
Most of the victims were administered the medicine at government-run sterilisation camps. More than 100 remain in hospital, several in a critical condition.
The new patients did not take part in the sterilisation camps and had consumed the drugs separately, hospital officials said.
Dr R.K Gupta, the doctor who conducted over 80 sterilisation surgeries in six hours, was arrested at a relative’s home near Bilaspur city late on Wednesday.
He denied responsibility for the deaths and blamed medication given to the women after the surgery.
Authorities have also arrested the father and son owners of Mahawar Pharma, a small drug maker in the state capital Chhattisgarh and sealed their factory after identifying their ciprofloxacin antibiotic tablets as one of several medicines prescribed at the camps.
The Mahawars were not available for comment.
India is the world’s top steriliser of women, and efforts to rein in population growth have been described as the most draconian after China.
Indian birth rates fell in recent decades, but population growth is among the world’s fastest.
Sterilisation is popular because it is cheap and effective, and sidesteps cultural resistance and problems with distribution of other types of contraception in rural areas.
Reuters