Students across country suffer due to polluted water, mid-day meals, iron supplements

Chennai, July 18: Close to the incident of Bihar, around 155 girl students fell ill Thursday after taking midday meals at their school in Neyveli in Tamil Nadu, a senior official said, adding 13 had been hospitalized.

In Bihar, it may mentioned that 23 school children died after the mid-day meal served to them acouple of days earlier. NOw the similar case happened in Tamil Nadu. 

The incident took place at the NLC Girls School in Neyveli. The 13 have been taken to a government hospital for observation, said the official. Neyveli is around 210 km from Chennai.

"Their condition is stable. Most probably they will be discharged Friday morning," Cuddalore district collector K. Kirlosh Kumar told IANS over telephone.

He said the probable cause for the mass sickness was food poisoning. The food samples had been sent to laboratory for testing.

In the aftermath of a similar tragedy in Bihar that led to the death of 23 school students, anxious parents gathered outside the Neyveli hospital, resulting in tension.

Eight students taken ill in Delhi: Meanwhile, eight students, including seven girls, of a Delhi Government-run school in North West Delhi fell ill after allegedly being given folic acid and iron supplements under a newly launched government scheme.

The girls of the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Bharatpur locality in Ashok Vihar area were rushed to Sundarlal Jain Hospital on Wednesday after the fell sick. They were discharged Thursday morning.

"Eight students in the age group of 10-12 years were brought to the hospital yesterday by the local police. They all had the common complaint of abdomen pain and vomiting. They said they were given iron tablets in their school," Medical Superintendent of Sundarlal Jain Hospital Subhash Aggarwal said. He said the following treatment, students were discharged early Thursday morning.

"We carried out stomach wash of the students besides normal medical treatment," Aggarwal said. "We are examining why the eight students in Bharatpur fell ill," they said. When asked about the incident, Delhi's Health Minister A.K. Walia refused to comment.

The scheme to provide iron and folic acid tablets was kicked off on Wednesday to improve the health of students studying in schools. Under the programme all adolescent children in 6 to 12th standard at government and government aided schools will be given iron and folic acid tablets once a week.

DCP North West P. Karunakaran said the students complained that they fell ill after taking the tablets given in the school. "An investigation into the case is on," he said.

The incident comes a day after one child died and 21 other children fell ill after taking vitamin A tablets given to them at an anganwadi centre in Bihar's Gaya district.

34 students taken ill after drinking contaminated water in Maharashtra: At least 34 students, including 13 girls, fell ill after allegedly consuming contaminated water in Dhule district, police said on Thursday. The water was allegedly supplied by a tanker to the private Kasturbai Ashram school in Tavkheda village in Shind Kheda taluka of north Maharashtra's Dhule district.

The students upon drinking the water started vomiting and complained of diarrhoea late on July 16 night.

A medical team from Dhule civil hospital rushed to the school and provided treatment to the affected students, who were in the age group of 8 to 12 years. Two of the children who were taken ill were admitted to hospital.

Health department sources, meanwhile, said that the condition of all the students was improving. Dhule collector Prakash Mahajan and zila parishad chief executive officer Anil Landge visited the school Wednesday night, police added. The private ashram school runs classes from first to the tenth standard.