Re: Bihar: Reports of 23 children dead, many hospitalized after school lunch in Chhapra, Second incident - One dead in Gaya
Published Date: 2013-07-18 09:22:29
Subject: PRO/EDR> Organophosphate poisoning, school lunch - India: (BR)
Archive Number: 20130718.1831208
ORGANOPHOSPHATE POISONING, SCHOOL LUNCH - INDIA: (BIHAR)
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Date: 17 Jul 2013
Source: New York Times [edited]
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/21-children-die-from-poisoned-lunches-at-indian-school/?hp
21 children died, and more than 2 dozen were hospitalized Tuesday [16 Jul 2013] after being poisoned by an insecticide-laced lunch served at a primary school in the eastern state of Bihar.
The children complained that the food -- rice, beans and potato curry -- tasted odd and soon suffered severe vomiting and diarrhea, officials said. After the children's complaints, the school's cook tasted the meal and promptly fell ill as well, according to P. K. Shahi, minister of human resource development in Bihar.
School meal programs in India, like many government programs, are rife with fraud. Corruption has long been endemic in Bihar, one of India's poorest states.
After seeing the children get sick, the school's teachers and administrators fled the school, according to Dr. Shambhu Nath Singh, the deputy superintendent of the government hospital in Bihar's Saran District. Parents brought the sickened children to the hospital. Seven were dead on arrival, and 7 died soon after getting to the hospital, Dr. Singh said.
"Their condition was quite serious, and we sent them to the state capital of Patna for treatment," Dr. Singh said. Two children died during the transfer.
An organophosphate was found in the children's bodies during post-mortem investigations, Dr. Singh said. Organophosphates are commonly used in insecticides and solvents and these chemicals can be very toxic. Insecticides are used with abandon in some parts of rural India, and poisonings and suicides from their ingestion are routine.
Associated Press Schoolchildren, who fell ill after eating a midday meal at a primary school in Bihar, receiving treatment at a hospital on Tuesday [16 Jul 2013].
"Either the food was contaminated already, or it got contaminated during the cooking," Dr. Singh said.
The local police opened an investigation into the incident and have been searching for the school's headmistress, but she has fled, Abhijit Sinha, the district's chief civil servant, said by telephone.
School lunch programs became universal in India following a 2001 order by India's Supreme Court, which concluded that such programs could significantly reduce childhood malnutrition. India's school lunch program now serves free meals to 120 million children, making it by far the largest such program in the world. In Bihar alone, 20 million children participate in the program, which is administered by state officials.
Many states provide the food by hiring charities, some of which are linked to powerful politicians. The programs have been credited with improving school attendance, sometimes substantially. And with some surveys suggesting that nearly half of Indian children suffer some form of malnutrition, the programs serve a vital health purpose. But complaints about the quality of the food are common.
"It is a very daunting task to provide freshly cooked quality meals in 73 000 schools," Mr. Shahi said.
Many are involved in managing the food programs, including teachers, village elders and state officials, he said. "All these people look for easy money, and there is very little scope of making money without compromising the quality and quantity," Mr. Shahi said. "It is just not possible to taste meals in all the 73 000 schools before children eat the food."
Mohan Gupta, of Iskcon Food Relief Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves meals to nearly one million children in schools across central India but not in Bihar or neighboring Uttar Pradesh, said that the food programs in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have long been among the worst in India. "There are all these small NGOs there that cater to one or 2 schools, and they tend to be cronies of politicians," he said. "They are poor and corrupt."
[Byline: Gardiner Harris, Hari Kumar]
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[There are many organophosphates, and a single chemical is not named. Common clinical signs with organophosphate poisoning are vomiting, and diarrhea. There is generally lacrimation [excessive secretion of tears]; salivation and urination are also present. The fact that the food tasted odd, and may well have had a smell, as many organophosphates do have peculiar odors, should have been a warning. The concentration may have been relatively high for individuals to become ill so quickly.
It is sad that the adults were said to have vanished apparently without helping the children. For so many children to die so quickly makes one wonder: 1) How old were the children, since younger children may have been lighter in body weight and may have, therefore, received a proportionally higher dose? 2) Did the hospital not have proper treatment? and 3) What treatment was used?
Atropine is a recommended treatment with organophosphates and carbamates, a chemical class similar to organophosphates and presenting with similar clinical signs.
Hopefully, an investigation will ensue to learn how the chemical came to be in food for human consumption and how such a situation can be prevented in the future. If someone is responsible for such a heinous act, then hopefully that person will be held responsible.
We are most sorry for those who have suffered the loss of their child or children.
