After girl's death 20 more students of BMC school ill

Mumbai: A day after a 12-year-old school girl died and around 426 children took ill on Friday, 20 more children from the same Urdu-medium school were brought to the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital after they complained of stomach ache and nausea.

On Friday, around 426 children from Baiganwadi Shivaji Nagar slum in Govandi were rushed to Rajawadi and Shatabdi Hospital after consuming de-worming tablets that had been distributed in the school on Monday and iron-folic acid tablets on Friday.

The children had complained of nausea, giddiness and stomach ache.  The local residents including parents alleged that the child’s health deteriorated and several other students of the school fell ill after consuming the tablets.

BMC officials are investigating whether local food, water contamination or any other co-morbidity may have led to the incident.

Talking to The Asian Age, Dr Vidya Thakur, medical superintendent of Rajawadi Hospital, said “On Saturday we received around 20 kids out of which four were under observation and discharged later, whereas rest 16 were treated on outpatient department basis. Around ten are recuperating and will be discharged in the evening or tomorrow morning.

School children across the country are given iron-folic acid and de-worming tablets as per a Central health scheme. The state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday collected four samples of the tablets that were given to over 900 children in the school.

As an interim measure, the BMC discontinued the batch of the entire iron-folic acid tablets manufactured in February, along with Albendazole, manufactured by Zim Laboratories in November 2017, until the FDA reports arrive.

The deceased, Chandni Sahil Shaikh, died due to ‘evidence of broncho-pulmonary haemorrhage’ but her parents have blamed the medicines that were distributed at the school.