Six students fell unconscious in the classroom. Though authorities tried to rush one of the girls to Chennai, she died in a Salem hospital.
The tablets were provided by the Health Department to the students for daily consumption every month (Representational image/Creative Commons)
What began as fun for six schoolchildren turned tragic when one of the girls died of an iron overdose in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district on Thursday, 9 March.
The students of Urdu Middle School in Udhagamandalam (Ooty) municipality were provided iron and nutrient tablets.
The six Class VIII students — four girls and two boys — took up a challenge to see who could consume the most number of iron tablets, the police said.
While continuously swallowing the pills, the students fell unconscious in the classroom and were rushed to the Government Hospital on Monday, 6 March.
Later, the girls were shifted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), for further treatment after their condition worsened. They were kept under intensive care.
The hospital authorities decided to shift one of the girls, Jaiba Fathima, 13, to Stanley Medical College in Chennai, following liver failure.
As the ambulance rushing Fathima to Chennai neared Salem on Thursday evening, she developed a high temperature and breathlessness.
The vehicle took her to Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College in Salem, where she died while undergoing treatment.
The tablets were provided by the Health Department to the students for daily consumption every month. The school has 249 students, and they were given 50 tablets each.
The Health Department officials said the students fainted after they consumed too many pills which were distributed under the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) programme.
Expressing anguish over Fathima’s death, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday, 10 March, announced financial assistance of ₹3 lakh to her family from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
He also announced ₹1 lakh each to the other three girls, Nasjiya, Ayesha and Gulthoon Nisha, undergoing treatment at the CMCH. The chief minister directed the hospital authorities to provide them with the best treatment available.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department suspended from service the school headmaster and a teacher, who was in charge of supervising the tablet distribution.
The tablets are provided under the WIFS programme of the National Health Mission to reduce the prevalence and severity of anaemia in the adolescent population (10-19 years).
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that women of reproductive age and schoolchildren receive a weekly dose of iron and folic acid supplements, which contains 60 mg of elemental iron and 400 micrograms of folic acid.
Taking more than the recommended dosage can lead to iron overdose.
“Iron and folic acid tablets are essentially dietary supplements that can prevent and treat iron-deficiency anaemia but it can be toxic if taken in excess, especially for children,” Hyderabad-based general physician Dr V Kiran Kumar said.
“Symptoms of iron overdose include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, lethargy, and could even cause death. In some cases, iron overdose can damage the liver, heart, and other organs,” he told South First.
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![[Left] File photo of BJP MLA Harish Poonja, who has been booked, and [right] Poonja sitting for a protest in front of Belthangady Police Station in the early hours of Sunday, 19 May, 2024.](https://s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media.thesouthfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Harish-Poonja-and-Belthangady.jpg "Harish Poonja and Belthangady")
