22 Lucknow jail inmates faint after drug reaction

LUCKNOW: At least 22 inmates of Lucknow district jail fainted on the prison’s premises after being given a wrong anti-allergic medicine by an in-house pharmacist AshishVerma on Tuesday.
The prison department took cognizance of the incident and directed jail superintendent to issue a show cause notice. The anti-allergic was administered as part of a routine immunity boosting exercise in wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Spokesperson, DG prisons, Santosh told TOI that on Tuesday morning 22 inmates of cell number three turned unconscious.“Senior jail officials were informed and jail medical superintendent Dr NK Verma was directed to attend the patients,” he said.
Later, a preliminary inquiry was conducted which revealed that doctors had prescribed an anti-allergic tablet for some inmates. However, the prison pharmacist gave them another tablet which caused dizziness among inmates.
“The condition of all the 22 inmates was stable. A few of them had high blood pressure, but they turned normal by evening. Dr Verma was personally monitoring the condition of inmates,” said the PRO.
A show cause notice was also issued to Ashish Verma by Lucknow Jail Superintendent- Ashish Tiwari on the directions of prison headquarters.