November 18, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 2, 1422

GUWAHATI, Nov 17: Five more children died on Saturday in the northeast Indian state of Assam allegedly after receiving overdoses of vitamin-A under a UNICEF-backed anti-blindness drive, a state official said.

The death toll of children administered the dose now stands at 10.

Three children died at the Balagaon refugee camp in western Assam’s Kokrajhar district, 290 kilometres from the state capital Guwahati as they developed health complications after taking the vitamin solutions.

“Two girls of one family and another three-year-old boy died after they fell sick following the intake of vitamin-A solutions on Sunday,” Ashish Bhutani, district magistrate of Kokrajhar said.

“I personally visited the families and found out that the deaths were definitely not because of an overdose as the children were being administered the vitamin with a two ml spoon which is the prescribed dose,” Bhutani told AFP by phone.

Bhutani, who is also a specialist in medicine, said 240 children were seriously ill at a relief camp and were suffering from nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhoea. Health officials said two children died Saturday in a hospital in central Assam’s Nagaon district. Both of them had complained of fever and constant vomiting since Sunday after taking micro nutrient syrups.

“We are sending vitamin samples to find out whether the deaths and large number of children falling sick was due to overdose or because of some contamination in the solutions that were supplied,” top health official P.J. Gogoi said.

Meanwhile, the state government suspended six health workers, including two medical officers, for allegedly administering overdoses of vitamin-A that led to the deaths of five children earlier this week.

A top health department official said two medical officers, three auxiliary nurses, and a medical assistant, were among those suspended on charges of “dereliction of duties.”

The suspension of the health workers comes in the wake of a government probe ordered to investigate why thousands of children fell sick after being administered the vitamin-A doses on Sunday.

Health workers unions criticized the Assam government for taking “rash and hasty” steps in suspending the officials.—AFP