The incident occurred in the last week of April when children below the age of four started reporting to certain private clinics with what appeared to be symptoms of a gastro-intestinal infection -- vomiting, loose motions, and fever. They were administered antibiotics and anti-pyritic drugs by private child specialists. The children stopped passing urine and developed renal complications. Most of them, despite being rushed to Kalawati Sharan hospital in New Delhi where peritonital dialysis was performed, slipped into coma and died.

Though a team of experts from NICD reacted swiftly and took blood and stool samples of the other children living in the area where the deceased children resided, the local health authorities reacted in an abject manner -- putting the entire onus on NICD for investigating the matter.

It was only when pressure started mounting that the health authorities woke up and started collecting samples of drugs from the doctors who had treated the kids, chemists and pharmaceutical units. In a statement, the health department said reports of 18 samples out of the 23 taken have been received and the state government analyst has found the samples non-toxic and free of ethylene glycol.

The drug samples will be sent for further tests through the gas chromatography method. Doctors and medical experts have been at logger heads while discussing the medical aspects of this illness. Some consider this illness a result of indiscriminate use of certain antibiotic and anti-pyritic drugs to achieve `quick relief' while others are of the opinion that the deaths occurred due to inept handling of dehydration cases by the parents.