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Share Tweet Email Web of Incentives in Fatal Indian Sterilizations NOV. 12, 2014 RELATED COVERAGE NEW DELHI — Post-mortem examinations of several women who died after surgery at a government sterilization camp last weekend in central India suggest that tainted medications might be to blame, rather than the unsanitary conditions or the assembly- line haste of the operations, a district By SUHASINI RAJ and ELLEN BARRY NOV. 13, 2014  ASIA PACIFIC TaintedDrugsSuspectedinIndiaSterilization  Deaths A funeral in the eastern Indian state of Chhattisgarh for a women who died after undergoing sterilization at a government camp. Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters  s Goal  t Tainted Drugs Suspected in India Sterilization Deaths Obama Seeks to Push Myanmar Back on the Path Toward Democracy Afghanis Convoy 

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Web of Incentives in Fatal IndianSterilizations NOV. 12, 2014

RELATED COVERAGE

NEW DELHI — Post-mortem examinations of several women who diedafter surgery at a government sterilization camp last weekend in centralIndia suggest that tainted medicationsmight be to blame, rather than theunsanitary conditions or the assembly-line haste of the operations, a district

By SUHASINI RAJ and ELLEN BARRY NOV. 13, 2014

ASIA PACIFIC

Tainted Drugs Suspected in India Sterilization

Deaths

A funeral in theeastern Indian stateof Chhattisgarh for a women who diedafter undergoingsterilization at a government camp.Anindito

Mukherjee/Reuters

s Goalt

Tainted Drugs Suspectedin India SterilizationDeaths

Obama Seeks to PushMyanmar Back on thePath Toward Democracy

AfghanisConvoy

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12 Women Die After BotchedGovernment Sterilizations in India NOV. 11, 2014

medical officer said on Thursday.

Initially, health officials suspected that12 women succumbed to septic shock from infections contracted during their

tubal ligation operations on Saturday, inthe state of Chhattisgarh. The surgeon who operated on most of them, Dr. R. K. Gupta, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of culpable homicide.

However, the district medical officer, Dr. M. A. Jeemani, said onThursday that tainted medicines might be to blame. “Our earlier claimthat the deaths were due to septicemia seem to be coming off,” he said.Instead, he added, “What I have gathered after the first few post-mortems is that it could be due to the administering of spuriousmedicines.”

The deaths have drawn international attention to the practice, commonin India, of offering women cash and other incentives to be sterilized at“fairs” or “camps” where surgeons operate one after the other on largenumbers of patients. At the Saturday fair, a surgeon was reported tohave operated 83 times in one day.

But in recent days, the investigation has focused on the two packets of pills sent home with each patient after surgery, one containingciprofloxacin, an antibiotic, and the other containing the anti-inflammatory and painkiller ibuprofen.

Dr. R. K. Gupta, who performed sterilizations on at least 12 Indian women who later died, says itwas tainted medication that killed them and not complications from the procedures heperformed. Video by AP on November 13, 2014. Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters.

PLAY VIDEO | 0:39

Sterilization Surgeon Defends Himself

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One clue pointing to the pills was another death and scores of hospitalizations from separate sterilization clinics overseen by anothersurgeon two days later. That surgeon, Dr. K. K. Sao, said there was athird set of patients as well, people who did not undergo surgery, but

were given medicine from the same batches for other reasons. One such

patient who died on Thursday was a 75-year-old man, he said.

State officials in the district have confiscated shipments of ciprofloxacinand ibuprofen.

Roopchand Siras, a barber from the village of Amsena whose wife diedon Monday after undergoing sterilization, said health officials had“ordered that the medicines should be seized,” and came to his house tocollect the remaining pills. Another resident, Bedan Bai, said hergranddaughter began vomiting an hour after taking her first dose of ciproflaxin and later died.

The Chhatisgarh state government said it had halted the distribution of drugs made by two Indian pharmaceutical companies, Medisafe Spiritand Medicare Spirit. “Complaints were received against the twocompanies for supplying substandard medicines,” a statement postedon Twitter by the state government said.

In a field outside the abandoned cancerclinic where the sterilizations took place, there were signs on Thursday of arecent fire, where someone hadapparently burned a large number of medicine vials, packets and syringes.

Most of the affected patientsexperienced vomiting and abdominalpain, followed by a feeling of dizzinessand chest pains. In the most seriouscases, the patients deteriorated very rapidly and died within 48 hours of theonset of symptoms.

A clinician at a private hospital, who

requested anonymity because he is notauthorized to speak publicly, said thatin severe cases, patients wereexperiencing cardiomyopathy, in whichthe heart is dilated and its pumpingaction fails.

Dr. Sao, the surgeon, said he had

India’s Painful Past

Associated Press

During a two-year state of emergency that began in1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi led an aggressivecampaign of sterilization that was later deemed to bea violation of human rights.

In 1976 , she announced that ''strong steps whichmay not be liked by all'' were under consideration.More than six million sterilizations , many forced, wereperformed. Violent protests ensued.

After Mrs. Gandhi's resounding election defeat in1977, the new government shunned old measuresand sterilizations declined to 188,000 in 1977 and1978.

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reviewed some of the first post-mortemreports on the women who died in Chhatisgarh. No evidence of surgicalinjury on the bodies was reported, he said, and the cause of death wasgiven as cardio-respiratory failure in one case and renal failure inanother.

The surgeon who was arrested on Wednesday, Dr. Gupta, said in atelephone interview before his arrest that the ciproflaxin and ibuprofenused at the fair was distributed by a regional health official to patientsand their caregivers. He said they were “clearly spurious medications,”and expressed frustration that scrutiny had fallen immediately on him.

“If somebody has to be made a scapegoat, it is the surgeon,” he said.“The entire blame is on me.”

Suhasini Raj reported from New Delhi, and Ellen Barry from Amsena, India.

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