Tragic child deaths

The news of as many as 25 children dying from an intake of analgesic syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol has caused trepidation among unsuspecting mothers who might have been using it. The episode seems localised, victims coming from greater Comilla region and landing up at the Shishu Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, Dhaka with renal failure that proved lethal.
While the Drug Administration has ordered Rid Pharmaceutical Company at Brahmanbaria sealed on a preliminary test of their products containing poisonous chemical meant for tannery processing, apprehensions do exist about the extent of its intrusion into the market. Although the health authorities have collected samples and sent these to the laboratory for testing, the concern remains. The government awaits laboratory reports to decide what course of action to take.
A health ministry team is investigating the matter in the immediate term whilst a four-member parliamentary sub-committee is to look into the overall situation in the drug industry with a focus around the latest spate of child deaths and report their findings in three months.
It is worthwhile to note how in the face of a public health crisis, that too concerning paediatric health, our response can be so gingerly. Given the fact that there is lack of continuing supervision of the drug manufacturing processes, we should have been in a state of readiness to face such a contingency. From breaking of the news through taking cognizance of the gravity to completion of testing formalities to reporting to eventual action -- the process seems a long-drawn one.
As it happened with melamine in baby milk formula we often felt the lack of indigenous capacity to test or didn't place any reliance on it; the sample having to be sent abroad for testing. However in the present paracetamol case, after a report is received from the laboratory there will be the big issue of identifying the contaminated products and weeding them out of the market as the potential users are warned of these and punitive measures taken against the recalcitrant drug producers.
Basically, we need a two-pronged action plan to ward off any man-made public health disaster: first, at the level of producers; and secondly, at the authorities' level. Those companies which put business ahead of human lives, especially of children, have no right to exist. They should be put out of business through a cancellation of licences and those found guilty must face legal action as well.
What is, however, seminally important is that the drug administration authority and the standards institution exercise strict quality control measures in their respective domains. This would require building institutional capacities in terms of providing well-equipped testing laboratories in an adequate number and firming up of the inspecting and enforcement mechanisms.
Our prime emphasis is on quality control; for, it's a pity that while we are on point of carving a niche in the international pharmaceutical marketplace by virtue of the reputation of established drug manufacturing companies, some spurious companies are playing with the lives of our children.