M A I N   N E W S

Iron pills again: Hundreds of kids fall ill in Haryana 
Tribune News Service

In another incident, about 60 students from classes VI to X were taken ill after consuming iron-folic acid tablets in Franci and Dhiranwas villages of Hisar. Though the health authorities had distributed the tablets yesterday, students complained of stomachache when they reached the school this. They were later taken to the hospital for medical examination.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Hisar AK Garg and Civil Surgeon Ashok Kumar rushed to the Agroha Medical College and Hospital to inquire about the health of the students. The Civil Surgeon said all children had been discharged after preliminary medical examination as there were no symptoms of any reaction.

Around 80 children fell ill at Nagura village in Jind. Similar reports were also received from Sonepat and Gurgaon districts. Most of the students complained of vomiting, diarrhoea, headache and stomachache on Monday.

The health authorities everywhere denied that the problem was due to iron-folic acid pills given to the children under the government programme. The children might have developed health problems due to some other reasons, they claimed.

Sirsa-based teachers Om Prakash and Veena Rani said they gave tablets to the children after the mid-day meal as was advised by the health authorities.

Dr Surender Nain, Civil Surgeon, Sirsa, said the half-life of the supplement was three hours and it could not cause complications a day after it is consumed. There could be some other reasons behind these cases, he maintained.

In Hisar, the 45 schoolchildren, including 36 girls, from Fransi village were admitted to Maharaja Agarsen Medical College, Agroha, after they developed complications. Hisar Civil Surgeon Ashok Chaudhary said 71 students were taken to the hospital out of them 45 were admitted there for treatment.

In Gurgaon, Sapna (14) of Class X, Manisha and Annu of Class VII, all from Sikanderpur (Badha) village, were admitted to the Civil Hospital for treatment. The news created panic in the district with many parents refusing to allow their children to take the free dose. At some schools in Sohna subdivision, scared students ran away on seeing medical teams that had come to give them iron-folic acid tablets. About 11,000 students were offered these tablets in the district but more than 3,500 students refused the free dose.

No major incident was, however, reported from Karnal and Panipat.

The authorities had temporarily suspended the programme on May 31 as there were reports of children taking ill after consuming the supplement. The programme was re-launched on Monday after a lot of homework.