Following several reports of students reporting sick to hospitals after consuming iron folic acid supplements administered to them in schools, the Pune district health officials have temporarily ‘suspended’ administering the tablets until the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) gives the supplements a clean chit.
On July 20, dna had reported that 35 students of the Chhatrapati Shivaji School in Bavada village of Indapur taluka were rushed to hospital with mild symptoms of side effects after they consumed iron and folic supplements under Union ministry of health and family welfare’s Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation programme for adolescents.
Barely one day ago, 77 students had taken ill in a school at Solapur after consuming the same pills.
Following the incidents, the FDA wrote to Directorate of Health Services (DHS) asking them to stop giving the pills until reports of the tablets’ safety is received. The DHS in turn asked all district health officials to stop the programme for a couple of weeks.
“We had written to the DHS to stop giving the supplements until they are proven safe and we believe they have done so,” said B R Masal, joint commissioner (drugs), FDA Pune.
Meanwhile, district health officer N D Deshmukh admitted that the programme had been temporarily stopped in Pune for safety reasons.
“The FDA’s report is expected by Monday or Tuesday and once we receive the green signal, we can restart the programme. In the meantime, the next schedule dosage which was supposed to be July 29 has been postponed,” he said.
The officials said that the DHS has now revised the guidelines for administering the supplements.
“The earlier guidelines said that the supplements should be given at least one hour after food for proper absorption. However, the state officials have now communicated that the tablets must be given immediately after food. Also, if students weigh less than 30kg, the tablets are not to be given to them until further instructions,” added Deskhmukh.
About 4,08,000 students from 4,999 schools studying in Std I to Std X are covered under the programme meant for fighting anemia in growing children.
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