Spurious drugs may have caused tubectomy deaths

The death of 13 women in Chhattishgarh following sterilisation surgeries in government medical camps in Bilaspur district may have been caused by sub-standard medicines given to those women in the post-operative care, suggests the findings of an expert panel.

“Sepsis – the initial diagnosis – may not be the sole cause in all the patients and contamination of the medications used could be a strong possibility,” the seven member expert team from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said in its report, a copy of which is available with Deccan Herald.

The AIIMS team, which was rushed to Chhattishgarh on November 12 after news of the women's death hit the headlines, submitted its report to the health minister J P Nadda on Friday. The doctors also met Chhattishgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and apprise him of their findings.

The doctors suggested all sterilisation camps in the state should be stopped till the exact cause of the death is ascertained. As spurious medicine could be the culprit, they advised the chief minister to test the medicines at two different reputed laboratories to find out if there is any contamination.

The AIIMS team is headed by Anjan Trikha, professor of anaesthesia and critical care. Other six members in the team are Sanjay Agarwal (nephrology), Arti Kapil (microbiology), M Mahapatra (hematology), Neena Malhotra (obstetrics and gynaecology), Sanjiv Sinha (medicine) and Kapil Dev Soni (intensive and critical care).