Ten days after 19 people died from drinking Tyno cough syrup, the Health Department has yet to identify which ingredient caused the deaths.
An official dealing with the case told on the condition of anonymity that testing was still underway to determine what went wrong.
“The Drug Testing Laboratory (DTL) examined the syrup and stated that all the active ingredients in it were fine. However, the DTL report does not state whether any poisonous material was present in the medicine. The task has been given to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA),” he said
Another senior Health Department official, requesting anonymity, said the PFSA had promised to give its report on Tuesday (today). He said that this was a test case for the PFSA, which opened only in October 2011 and had been touted by the Punjab government as a crucial step towards modernising crime investigation methods.
He added that there was a contingency plan if the agency was unable to determine the cause of death. “If the agency fails to determine the problem with the syrup, samples can be sent to laboratories in Europe and UK,” said the official.
Khawaja Salman Rafique, the special assistant to the chief minister on health, said there had been some developments, but he did not want to share them with the press just yet. He said the investigation results would be made public once all the tests were complete. “This is a joint investigation involving Health Department officials, forensic experts and police,” he said.
Clash of narratives
The test results are likely to be greeted with controversy, as the manufacturers and sellers of Tyno cough syrup and the families of the victims have clashed over what caused the deaths.
After the 19 deaths, most of them in Shahdara Town, were reported between November 23 and 25, the government seized supplies of the cough syrup and arrested its manufacturer. At his bail hearing, the manufacturer claimed that the victims had consumed several bottles of the cough syrup and mixed it with other drugs to get high. His claims were later backed by chemists associations. The families of the victims say they were regular users of the cough syrup and never had trouble with it before.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2012.
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