Over 50 students aged between 9 and 15 years fell ill soon after consuming deworming tablets on Thursday afternoon in Noida Sector 53. The children had to be rushed to the hospital after they started complaining of stomach ache, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting, The Indian Express reported.
It turns out that students of Madan Mohan Malviya Vidya Mandir were administered free chewable tablet, ‘Albendazole’, on National Deworming Day.
Reports said they were moved to Super Speciality Paediatric Institute in Noida Sector 30, where doctors treated them in the gastro-ward and declared that they were out of danger.
Under a 2015 health and welfare programme, the government had initiated a scheme, where the deworming tablets were administered to children in Anganwadi centres and schools between the age of 1 and 19.
A Times of India report quoted CMO Anurag Bhargava, as saying, “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”.