The Indian Doctor Who Took on Sugary Energy Drinks and Won
When mislabeled rehydration products landed her young patients in the hospital, Sivaranjani Santosh spent eight years pushing regulators to act.
Photo Illustration: Vartika Sharma for Bloomberg; Photos: Getty (1), Shutterstock (1)
Almost a decade ago, Indian pediatrician Sivaranjani Santosh noticed a troubling trend among her young patients in the southern city of Hyderabad: children she’d already treated for diarrhea were being hospitalized with severe dehydration.
While diarrhea is endemic in India and a leading cause of child mortality, the resulting loss of fluids and minerals is easily treated with a World Health Organization-recommended salt solution. Santosh, who prided herself on maintaining an almost zero hospital admission rate, knew something was wrong.