At least 60 students of a state-run primary school in East Midnapore district were taken ill after they were administered deworming tablets today, district officials said.
The students of Changra Part Basic Primary School in Moyna block were given the deworming tablets following which some of them started vomiting and were taken to hospital. The students mainly complained of nausea, they said.
The school authorities then asked the students to go home. A majority of the students were taken ill after they went home, the officials said, adding they also went to the hospital.
Deworming tablets were given to other schools as well, but no complaints were received, the officials said.
It appears the tablets given to the students of the primary school had some problem, they said, adding medical teams were sent to the area.
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Health Secretary Mishra said the idea is to reach out to all children across the country and provide them deworming tablets so that "we are able to make them worm-free".
"It has been proven that worm infestation prevents a child from coming to school, prevents the child from a healthy growth both intellectually and physically," he said.
Asked about complaints of stomach ache and vomiting among children reported from various states, Mishra said that any drug will have certain side effects and asserted that these were "manageable".
"Any drug will have some (side effects). I am told if the worm load is very very high, it creates a problem, there is vomiting, stomach ache etc. But these are all manageable things.
"Any drug, simplest of drug, if 10 people take, one may have a problem. But it has been proven to be safe and that is why we are going on a national level," he said.
Ministry officials said that to manage adverse drug reaction, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission is supporting and assisting in monitoring through the robust system of Pharmacovigilance Programme of India which has established 210 adverse drug reaction monitoring centres across the country.
If any adverse effect occurs, states are instructed to contact these centres and there is a toll free number as well.
The Ministry said that deworming may have very few side effects and some children, especially those with high worm infections, might experience nausea, mild abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and fatigue.
In line with the guidance from the Ministry, comprehensive adverse event protocols have been put in place.
Mishra said that Health Minister J P Nadda himself has taken several rounds of meetings to ensure that the programme reaches out to a larger number and a letter has been sent to every state.
He said that state governments have been requested to talk to the respective private school associations and ask them to join the programme.
As per WHO, 43 per cent of the global population and 64 per cent of the Indian population less than 14 years are at the risk of Soil Transmitted Helminths (STH) infection. The rate of open defecation, an important risk factor for STH transmission, is as high as 91 per cent in some areas and nationally it is 51 per cent.
According to the ministry which has done the STH mapping, the prevalence ranged from 85 per cent in Tamil Nadu to 12.5 per cent in Madhya Pradesh during 2015.
