November 22, 2001	Thursday	Ramazan 6, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

TOBA TEK SINGH, Nov 21: The district health department on Tuesday banned all the anti-malaria tablets of chloroquine at all the health centres following the death of two nursery-class children of government primary schools in Chak 753-GB and 755-GB.

The officials have taken all stocks of the medicine in their possession while their samples have been sent to the Punjab government drug testing laboratory.

Meanwhile, executive district officer (health) Dr Zulfiqar Ali has suspended communal disease control programme supervisor Haq Nawaz from service and set up a four-member committee to probe into the incident.

District health development centre chairman and programme director Dr Siraj Din Shad, Kamalia deputy district health officer Dr Ghulam Dastagir, Pirmahal rural health centre senior medical officer Dr Farooq Raza and CDC programme officer Muhammad Saleem will look into the matter.

A source told this correspondent that the supervisor visited both the schools and asked the children to use the tablets after taking meals. Around 20 students of the Government Primary School, Chak 755-GB, and more than a dozen students of class nursery and one of Chak 753-GB school took the sugar coated tablets and their health started deteriorating.

Two of the children —Abdul Rashid and Muhammad Awais of Chak 755-GB — died while six others were taken to the Pirmahal RHC. Four of them are still under treatment.

Board members Dr Omar Farooq Bhatti, Dr Javed Husain Zaidi and Dr Farooq Raza confirmed in their preliminary report that the cause of death was overdose of the medicine.

Samples of blood and urine of the other children have been sent to Punjab chemical examiner for an analysis. Samples of water of handpumps and eatables sold by vendors in both the schools have also been obtained for test.

District and tehsil Nazims visited the villages and assured the parents that stern action would be taken against.