Over 100 students fall ill after medication at health camp

ETAWAH - As many as 110 students of a primary school in this Uttar Pradesh district were hospitalised Tuesday when they fell ill after they had been administered de-worming and iron tablets, an official said, adding that all them were now out of danger.

The students of the primary school in the Havelia village of the block were given the tablets at a government health camp organised at the school.

The district administration has ordered an enquiry into the incident and sealed the medicines stock from which the tablets were supplied to the school students. Moreover, the food provided to students by the school under the mid-day meal scheme has also been sent for lab testing.

“Majority of the students were made to consume the tablets before the lunch. Later, in the afternoon some of the students started fainting, while others complained of stomach ache and started vomiting,” district primary education in-charge R.B. Maurya told reporters in Etawah town, some 200 km from Lucknow.

“All the students are being treated at the district hospital. The students are from Class 1 to Class 5,” he added.

According to sources, the medical team involved in administering the medicines to students is to be blamed for the incident as it made the students consume the medicines on empty stomach.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that the heath staff were at fault as they did not administer the medicines in the prescribed manner,” an official of the district administration told IANS.

Etawah Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Yogesh Kumar Gupta, however, told IANS that he could not confirm anything until the result of the enquiry had been received.