Gilgit (Staff reporter): On the second day of the nationwide campaign, children across schools in GB were given deworming tablets on Wednesday.
More than 50 students complained of severe headache and vomiting at a girls’ school in Oshikhangdas soon after they were given deworming pills. The medicines were administered to students by the teachers in the absence of a doctor in violation of legal rules and medical ethics.
The affected students were at school premises for hours without informing parents and providing first aid. They were rushed to a hospital in Danyor by volunteers of ‘Youth and Civil Society’ for treatment later only when the condition of the students further deteriorated. Most of the students were unconscious when they were brought to the hospital.
The hospital where the affected were rushed lacked accommodation facilities, medicines, and doctors. There was no expert doctor at the time. The students were left at the mercy of paramedical staff until doctors reach later to see the patients.
Civil society activists present at the hospital condemned the way the whole process was undertaken.
According to Dr. Sajid Hussain Syed, a young activist from Gilgit-Baltistan, the deworming campaign started in GB against the set ethics of research. Side effects of medicines should have been evaluated before taking the product to a larger population. According to him, school children were made subjects of research which is equivalent to playing with their lives and the future of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Parents and local people blocked the road outside the hospital. They chanted slogans against the health department and demanded the supreme court of Pakistan to take Suo-moto action against the responsible people.
