India: Tamil Nadu school girl dies after overdosing on iron supplements
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According to the district education officer, the students competed to see who could consume the most iron supplement. As per local reports, Fathima consumed roughly 45 pills, while the three other girls and two boys who were with her consumed at least 10 pills each.
On March 9, a 13-year-old student at the Urdu Middle School of the Udhagamandalam Municipality in the Nilgiris died after taking too much iron and folic acid pills, allegedly over a bet.
According to The New Indian Express, the student, Jaiba Fathima, consumed approximately 45 supplements before suffering liver failure. Four students from the school, including Fathima, allegedly consumed the pills on Monday as a result of a bet among friends. According to The Times of India, Fathima took the most supplements.
As per reports, Fathima and five other students went to their headmaster's office and discovered a package of supplements that were supposed to be provided as part of the National Health Mission's Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) programme.
According to the district education officer, the students competed to see who could take more supplements. According to reports, Fathima consumed roughly 45 pills, while the three other girls and two boys who were with her consumed at least 10 pills each.
On Monday, some of the students felt dizzy and were taken to the Udhagamandalam Government Hospital before being sent to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH). According to CMCH administration, Fathima was sent to Stanley Medical College in Chennai after it was determined that she had sustained serious liver damage and required a liver transplant right away.
She was transported to the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College in Salem, but as her health deteriorated there, she was pronounced dead.
The Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation programme involved the weekly, under-monitored administration of 100mg elemental iron and 500ug folic acid using a fixed-day approach to school-going adolescent boys and girls in Classes 6 to 12 enrolled in government/government-aided/municipal schools, as well as adolescent girls who were not currently enrolled in school. According to The Hindu, the school's headmaster and a teacher in charge of supplement distribution have been suspended by the school's education department.
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