21 kids fall ill after taking iron tablets
Delhi government officials went in to a tizzy on Wednesday night when 21 school children were hospitalised and more than 200 complained about nausea, headache, vomiting and stomach-ache after having iron-folic acid tablets under the Chacha Nehru Bal Sehat Yojana.
Delhi health minister A.K. Walia, however, said that such symptoms are normal for children consuming iron-folic for the first time.
“More than 18 lakh iron-folic acid pills were distributed under the Chacha Nehru Bal Sehat Yojana to the government school children, teachers and anganwadi kendras. They were known side-effects of iron-folic pills for the first-timers. These pills were distributed to the school children between an age group of 10-19 years. Around 200 children complained of nausea, vomiting and other symptoms. The hospitalised children were relieved after 4-5 hours,” he said.
Children, mostly girls, suffered from the symptoms from all across the city.
“Eight children were admitted in Sunder Lal Jain Hospital, seven were admitted in Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, one each in Sanjay Gandhi Memorial, Bada Hindurao, Hedgewar and Ambedkar hospitals and two children in Jagparvesh Chand hospital. All of them were admitted at around 9.30 pm on Wednesday and were relived by 3:30-4 am on Thursday,” Mr Walia added. He further said that such incident occurred on the mass scale as this was for the first time the city government emphasised on providing iron-folic pills to more than 18 lakh school children. “This symptom only appears in the first-timers or sometimes on the second-timers as well. Such situations will not appear again as the children will be provided iron-folic pill on every Wednesday,” said a senior health ministry official.
However, the police has registered an FIR under section 337 of the Indian Penal Code (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) against unknown persons in this case at the Bharat Nagar police station of north-west Delhi.
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