Bhubaneswar: At least eight female students in two districts of Odisha fell ill reportedly after being administered with the deworming tablets in their schools on Monday, officials said. Shortly after taking the tablets, they complained of vomiting, nausea and severe discomfort.
While six of the girls were admitted to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Soro in Balasore district, two others were taken to the district hospital in Malkangiri, officials said.
“There are no such side effects of deworming medicines. The two children had fever before or they may have fallen ill due to fear. They are now out of danger,” Malkangiri district's Chief Health Officer Dr CHM Jagannath Rao.
Malkangiri District Education Officer and Assistant District Magistrate, Umaprasad Dash, said that students in all schools have been distributed deworming medicine.
The children were given the tablets during the National Deworming Day celebration on Monday. Children in the age group of one to 19 years are provided with the pills in the campaign. The drive is being carried out by the directorate of family welfare of the state Health department in collaboration with the National Health Mission (NHM) and UNICEF.
