Sheena Almaera Maryam, a young girl with a love for reading books, faced a nightmare on her first day of kindergarten near Jakarta when she fell ill due to toxic syrup she was given for her fever. As a result of consuming the contaminated medication, the five-year-old now spends her days confined to a room adorned with Hello Kitty wallpaper, her gaze fixed on a baby mobile, as she battles the aftermath of the toxic substance that ravaged her organs.

The case of Sheena is not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing trend where hundreds of children spanning from Gambia to Uzbekistan have been victims of poisoning due to tainted medicinal syrups. These incidents, uncovered by national authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO), have sparked widespread concerns and investigations into the safety and quality of medications being distributed. The contamination of medicinal syrups has prompted criminal investigations and legal actions in several countries, highlighting the severity and multi-faceted impact of this issue on affected families, some of whom have had to cope with the loss or disability of their children due to poisoning incidents.