Mumbai: Child’s death triggers panic over school pill programme

At least 456 children were rushed to hospitals in Ghatkopar and Govandi on Friday morning, after the death of a child in the neighbourhood created panic about iron, folic acid and deworming tablets that were distributed at a local municipal school.

At least 456 children were rushed to hospitals in Ghatkopar and Govandi on Friday morning, after the death of a child in the neighbourhood created panic about iron, folic acid and deworming tablets that were distributed at a local municipal school earlier on August 6. Seventeen children are in hospital, said Dr Vidya Thakur, medical superintendent, Rajawadi Hospital.

The BMC school where the child studied. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

The child, 12-year-old Chandani Mohd Shaikh from Sanjay Nagar in Govandi, died on Friday morning. The BMC’s health department said Shaikh had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, but it is not yet clear if she was on medication for it.

A post mortem on Friday evening at Sir JJ Hospital did not reveal the cause of death, but viscera samples from her body have been sent to the forensic laboratory at Kalina for further investigations.

As Shaikh died within days of the pill distribution programme at the Sanjay Nagar Municipal Urdu School No 2, in Bainganwadi, parents started panicking after a community centre asked parents to check their children for symptoms.

A doctor from Rajawadi Hospital, where Shaikh died, said, “While Shaikh attended school on August 7, she fell ill and remained absent for two days after that. On Friday morning, she complained of pain in the chest pain and stomach, and vomited blood. Her parents brought her to the hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival.”

Around 975 other children were also given the medication as a part of ‘National Iron Plus,’ a programme to address iron deficiency in students of government schools. The children were taken to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar and Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi.

“All the children were examined by the paediatrician and few of them complained of nausea and giddiness,” said Dr Padmaja Keskar, BMC’s executive health officer. “Most of them only panicked after the death of the child, and were anxious about their health,” she said.

For now, the tablet distribution has been discontinued and the pills have been sent for tests. Dr Avinash Supe, director, medical education, BMC, said the Food and Drugs Administration has collected samples of the iron and folic acid (batch number TAF 8069AL) tablets and will test them. The drugs were made in February 2018, with an expiry date of January 2020. The deworming medicines, Albendazol (batch number FAR6L733) had an October 2019 expiry date. “Tablets from both these batches have been discontinued with immediate effect from all the municipal schools. We will continue the medication once FDA submits its report.”

“We gave the tablets on Monday morning, but none of the students complained about stomach ache or any other symptoms,” said Sayyed Farhana Bano, the principal of the school which as around 1,200 students on its rolls. “Even Chandni did not talk about any pains on that day.”

Idzes Kundan, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said Shaikh had been diagnosed with TB, but said they were not aware if she was on medication.

A resident of the Bainganwadi area, Haseena Bano, said, “We were told a girl has died after consuming a tablet from the school, in an announcement made on a community speaker, and we were told to check if our children faced symptoms such as vomiting, stomach ache and nausea. Some students in the locality said they felt nauseous and an ambulance was arranged to take them to Rajawadi.”

Iron tablets are administered to all students between Class 1 and Class 10 in municipal schools once a week for 40 weeks a year. Mahesh Palkar, the education officer, BMC said, “The tablets are prescribed under the ‘National Iron Plus’ initiative of the government and there hasn’t been any incident of reaction reported in the school after those tablets were administered on Monday. It was only after the local community centre made announcements about the girl’s condition that parents started taking their children to the hospital to ensure everything was alright”.