A 13-year-old girl studying in the Urdu Middle School of Udhagamandalam Municipality in The Nilgiris passed away on Thursday, March 9, after consuming too many iron and folic acid supplements allegedly over a bet. The student, Jaiba Fathima, suffered from liver failure after consuming nearly 45 supplements, according to The New Indian Express. Fathima was among four students of the school who had consumed the supplements on Monday allegedly due to a playful bet among friends. Fathima consumed the maximum number of supplements, according to The Times of India.
According to reports, on Monday, Fathima and five other students had gone to their headmaster’s room and found a box of supplements, meant to be distributed under the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) initiative of the National Health Mission. The students reportedly challenged each other on who would consume more supplements, the district education officer told ToI. While Fathima reportedly took nearly 45 pills, two boys who were with her took two or three tablets each, while the three other girls took at least 10 tablets each.
After some of the students fainted on Monday, they were rushed to the Udhagamandalam Government Hospital, and from there they were referred to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH). After it was detected that Fathima had suffered severe liver damage and needed an immediate liver transplant, she was referred to Stanley Medical College in Chennai, CMCH management told TNIE. However, as her condition worsened on the way, she was taken to the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College in Salem, where she was declared dead.
The Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation programme involved the supervised weekly administration of 100mg elemental iron and 500ug folic acid, using a fixed day approach, to school going adolescent girls and boys in Classes 6 to 12 enrolled in government/government aided/municipal schools, and out of school adolescent girls. The school education department has placed the headmaster of the school and a teacher in-charge of the distribution of supplements under suspension, The Hindu reported.