Scores of girl students fall sick after taking folic acid

Kaithal, Apr 12 (UNI) About 40 girl students and a teacher all ill today after consuming free Iron supplements in Government Primary School of Balu village near here.

The girl students and their 30-year-old teacher were rushed to civil hospital here with complaints of vomitting, nausea and giddiness after around 140 girls, in the age group of 5-12, were given Folic acid tablets as part of government scheme to boost the health of the girl students.

The condition of most of them stabilised after treatment following which 36 of them were discharged by this evening. The remaining four and the teacher were expected to be discharged before night, the SMO Dr Saluja said.

This is the second incident of its kind this week in the district when government school students were taken ill and had to be admitted in hospital.

A few days ago about 36 students of a school in Kailram village were rushed to the civil hospital, when they complained of vomitting and nausea after taking mid-day meal served at that school.

As the news spread in the village, a large number of villagers gathered at the school. Mr Sanjeev Verma ADC and Mr Jagdish Sharma SDM also rushed to the village.

Mr Rajinder Kataria, Deputy Commissioner, later told newspersons that the samples of tablets were being sent for examination, to ascertain their quality and the remaining stock of tablets had been sealed.

ADC Sanjeev Verma has been directed to probe the issue.

Some doctors who treated the patients said that sometimes if this tablet was taken on an empty stomach, it can cause such side-effects.

However, many parents expressed doubts about the quality of the tablets.

UNI