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The Health Ministry of Uzbekistan on Tuesday said 18 children, with acute respiratory disease, have died from taking excessive doses of a cough syrup, Doc-1 Max, manufactured by Marion Biotech, an Indian firm, The Hindu reported. The children consumed “excessive amounts” of the cough syrup, which contained ethylene glycol, a substance that ought not to be present in cough syrup. This comes days after a parliamentary panel in The Gambia found “unacceptable levels” of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol in cough syrups made by Haryana-based Maiden Pharma. Here, the cough syrups were linked to instance of acute kidney injury that is believed to be responsible for the deaths of at least 63 children. India’s health ministry officials said they were “aware” of the report from Uzbekistan but declined comment. “To date, 18 out of 21 children with acute respiratory disease have died as a result of taking Doc-1 Max syrup... It was found that deceased children took 2.5-5 ml of the drug at home for 2-7 days, 3-4 times a day, which exceeds the standard dose of the drug for children. All children were given the drug without a doctor’s prescription. Since the main component of the drug is paracetamol, Doc-1 Max syrup was incorrectly used as an anti-cold remedy on the recommendation of the pharmacy sellers and this was the reason for the deterioration of the condition of the patients… preliminary laboratory studies have shown that this series of Doc-1 Max syrup contains ethylene glycol. This substance is toxic and about 1-2 ml/kg of a 95% concentrated solution can cause serious changes in the patient’s health, such as vomiting, fainting, convulsions, cardiovascular problems and acute kidney failure.” “Tablets and syrups of the drug Doc-1 Max are withdrawn from sale in all pharmacies of the country in a prescribed manner,” reads the translation of the statement from Uzbekistan’s Health Ministry, according to The Hindu. Following the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) warning on October 5, linking four syrups to the deaths in The Gambia, Maiden Pharma’s export licence has been suspended. However, India has said that the WHO has drawn a “premature link” between the deaths of the children and the India-made cough syrups.

Kathmandu: ‘Sujero’, a poetry collection, written by poet Ramchandra Dahal, has been released.  This book, according to Dahal, is a collection of poems composed of a mixture of emotions and experiences of different periods of time and the meaning of ‘Sujero’ is also the same. Dahal said, “Sujero means a bag that contains pieces of clothes used to stitch in torn clothes. Apart from mixed pieces of clothes of different colors, the bag also contains needles, thread, and scissors. The mixed fabric of that bag and my poems in this book resemble the same meaning.” The book was published by Samriddhi Anusandhan Tatha Prakasan and was edited by Shiva Sharma and Dhurba Dulal and features artwork by Chhabin Dahal. Dahal has also written a couple of other books like ‘Thori’ and ‘Handighopte’. ‘Ananta Yatra’, the novel of Madhav Bidari, and ‘Jwalamukhi’, the liberator collection of Jigyasu Poudel, were jointly launched along with the ‘Sujero’ from the same stage.

The Home Ministry has directed the incumbent and former government officials and security personnel, who have kept the private security personnel and assistants against the rules, to return them to the concerned security agencies within 48 hours. The Ministry made such a decision a day after Rastriya Swatantra Party Chairman Rabi Lamichhane became the Home Minister. Issuing a statement on Tuesday, the Home Ministry called all the security personnel deployed for private security. The statement issued by Ministry spokesperson Phanindra Mani Pokharel asked the current and former government officials to keep the security personnel as per the Security Management Procedure 2077.  

Dr Keyoor Gautam, consultant pathologist and founder of Samyak Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., is driven by his responsibility towards his patients. Samyak Diagnostics was established in 2014 with a motive to make lab visits as convenient as possible. The seed was perhaps planted in 2012 when Gautam served as the head of the Department of Pathology at Grande International Hospital and helped build their laboratory system. Gautam, who did his post graduation in India, says diagnostic centers are well managed there unlike in Nepal. “Not just India, but elsewhere too, labs are efficiently run,” he adds. He felt Nepal lacked proper labs that were efficient and affordable. And his position in Grande was just what he needed to turn his vision of an ideal lab into reality. “But it wasn’t an easy task,” he says, “One of the basics of a good lab is easy flow for staff as well as patients, and I knew nothing about construction to do that.” There were times where he felt he wasn’t ready for the challenge. But what helped him, he says, was a word of advice from a senior. “He asked me to picture everything in my head, starting with how people would enter and move about,” he says, and so he did. Gautam was able to establish one of the most efficient labs in Kathmandu at Grande, but he says that came at a cost. He was barely able to see his family. “I knew I was doing good, but at the same time, it felt like I was not giving enough time to my wife and son,” he adds. Working hard for two years at the same institution, Gautam was skeptical if he could ever get a break. And that was when the concept of Samyak Diagnostics came to him. “I thought maybe with my own lab it would be easier to maintain a work-life balance,” he says, “But it took me another two years to finally get there.” Being a newly established path lab, he needed to be there from opening to closing. During the first couple of years, Gautam was the one to open and lock the lab doors. “I felt I needed to be available for my patients as well as the staff,” he says. Now, Samyak Diagnostics is among the best diagnostics labs in the valley, being the first to have ISO 15189 accreditation, an international standard requirement for quality management systems in medical laboratories. Their popularity grew because of word of mouth. People who visit the lab once recommend it to their family and friends. One of the reasons for that is the excellent service they provide. The staff are friendly and put you at ease from the moment you enter. They also ensure no one has to wait for more than five minutes. You also get informed when your lab results are ready, via SMS and email, saving you the hassle of having to check online or call to ask. Surprisingly, the place is affordable, and some tests are even cheaper than other hospitals and clinics, with special discounts for doctors, those in uniform, and some concessions for everybody else. Also, unlike at other labs, doctors are available for consultation in case patients want to discuss or understand their lab results. When asked how he manages to ensure such a friendly environment at the lab, Gautam says it’s because the employees are happy and content. His employees are his extended family and he says he will do whatever it takes to ensure the workplace is safe for them. “That is one of the reasons why I never started doing Covid-19 tests during the pandemic,” he says. Many people told him to provide covid testing, they told him it was a great opportunity to make a lot of money. But money, though an important aspect of business, has never been the basis of his decisions. Gautam mentions he didn’t want his patients to be scared to visit the lab during the pandemic and neglect their medical routine checkups. Being a stickler for discipline and hard work, Gautam reaches office at 7:00 in the morning and he is there till 4:00 pm. He even pops by for a little while on Saturday, which is his day off. He does this because unless he checks in on his team he feels something is amiss. “The hard work I put in ensures a good night’s sleep. I can sleep well when I know everything is running smoothly,” he says. The ISO 15189 accreditation helps put his mind at ease. There is a system that holds him and his team accountable, leaving absolutely no room for error. “One slip-up and the entire place will be shut down,” he says, adding sometimes things do go wrong, despite their best interests. But there is a system there too to ensure it is rectified. “To err is human but you have to own up to your mistake and correct it. That is what’s important,” he says. Samyak has sample collection centers at Baneshwor and Budhanilkantha. There is also the provision for home collection. It was started after much research on how long a test sample can be stored outside the lab. “While introducing new things, we don’t want to compromise on the service we provide,” he adds. Earlier there were many lab tests that couldn’t be done in Nepal. Samyak changed that. Many labs have followed in its footsteps and, as long as the competition is healthy, Gautam is happy that pathology as a field is evolving and becoming better. Having assisted in establishing quality path labs at Nepal Police Hospital in Panipokhari and the National Public Health Laboratory, Gautam believes good, reliable healthcare is everybody’s right, and he is working relentlessly towards making that happen. Gautam has also consulted for various government projects to establish labs in different parts of the country. It was under his guidance and expertise that the government managed to start six labs in Rukkum where healthcare facilities were limited to a bare minimum. As important as work is for him, Gautam realizes the need to spend time with his family, especially his son. It is what recharges him and makes him happy. He also enjoys sports. These days, he is into tennis, he says. He also hopes to retire when he is 50. “I want to learn Sanskrit after that. You have to invest in yourself too,” he says.