In a shocking incident, 50 students from a private school in Noida were admitted into the hospital complaining of abdominal pain. The students fell ill and were vomiting after being given Albendazole a chewable tablet for de-worming. The students were given the tablets on the eve of National Deworming Day in Noida Sector 53.
Students from Madan Mohan Malviya Vidya were immediately rushed to Super Speciality Paediatric Institute. The doctors examined the 50 students in the gastro ward. The students were given medication and the doctors confirmed they were out of danger.
A program was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in February 2015 to combat worm infection. The tablet Albendazole was administered to students between the age group of 1 and 19 in all schools.
The school’s principal, Mahesh Chauhan said, “There are around 600 students in the school which are affiliated from UP government. We provided the medicine to around 500 students. However, soon around 40-50 students complained of abdominal pain, headache and some of vomiting.”
One of the students who fell ill, Mahak Mathur said, “The teacher gave us medicine and asked to chew it. I did and soon felt pain in my stomach. I suffered vomiting and then informed school teacher.”
The CMO Anurag Bhargava reported, “We had distributed the medicines to 7 lakh students in different schools under government programme. We received complaint from only this school. We have called off the programme. The medicines will be sent for examination and then we will take suitable action.”
