In Astana, a female student at Gymnasium School No. 27 was poisoned by pills given to her by a nurse.
According to KTK, the mother of the eight-year-old girl, Aktamak Appas, claims that when her daughter came home after lessons, she ‘collapsed right on the doorstep’. Paramedics who arrived at the scene diagnosed ‘poisoning by systemic antibiotics’.
‘She started vomiting. I didn’t understand, I was in shock. She was in shock herself. During the penultimate lesson, the nurse called her out. They gave the child eight pills without my knowledge. They made her swallow them right there’, Appas claims.
The student's mother tried to get an explanation from the school management, but was unable to reach the headteacher by phone. Journalists also could not speak to him in person. The headteacher refused to comment, citing the fact that he had not given permission for filming.
The city departments of education and health also refrained from commenting.
In turn, the Vice-Minister of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Yerzhan Nurlybayev, spoke about the official investigation that has been launched.
‘The territorial committee has announced an official investigation. It's not that I don't have the information – there is no point in disclosing it because we haven't finished the official investigation yet’, Nurlybayev stated.
It has become known that the medical worker who gave the drugs to the schoolgirl does not work at the school itself, but at one of the city polyclinics.
The antibiotics were prescribed to the girl by a phthisiologist, because about a year ago the girl had contact with a classmate ill with tuberculosis. At the same time, her mother claims that her daughter is completely healthy.
‘They all had the Mantoux test. The whole class was registered. This year they were taken off. The phthisiologist sent us for a CT scan. The child was examined; the child is absolutely healthy. There are no bacilli’, said Aktamak Appas.
A paediatrician, Zhamilya Imanaliyeva, stated that antibiotics could indeed be prescribed in such a case and quantity, but their administration should have been agreed with the parents.
‘Any medical procedure at school or the administration of any drug must have parental consent. They first fill out an informed consent form; only after that are any drugs given to the child. Informed consent is always filled out in writing’, the statement reads.
It will be recalled that on 6 September, in the Beshshoky residential area of the village of Mangistau, Munayly District, Mangistau Region, primary school pupils were mass poisoned after lunch in the canteen.
The Minister of Health, Akmaraal Alnazarova, stated that 462 schoolchildren sought medical help. 96 of them were hospitalised. The Minister of Education, Gani Beisembayev, reported that he subsequently ordered inspections to be carried out in all schools across the country.
At the same time, it became known that the school canteen was run by the sole trader ‘Shakenova D’. It was reported that the enterprise's annual revenue is estimated at 2.5 billion tenge. The majority of contracts with the company were concluded using the single-source method.
On 16 September, specialists from the laboratory of the National Centre of Expertise of the Mangistau Region identified gross sanitary violations in the school's canteen.
In 20% of the rinse samples and swabs taken from the school canteen, intestinal bacteria were found. Staphylococcus was detected in six canteen workers. Furthermore, a dishwater and a food server turned out to be carriers of dysentery.
In October, the Minister of Education, Gani Beisembayev, said that following this incident, the head of the education department of Mangistau Region resigned, and the deputy akim of the region received a reprimand. In addition, the school terminated its contract with the company that provided the catering services.