Most primary health centres in the state still lack the antidote for organophosphorus, the chemical that contaminated the lunch of students at a Saran school leading to the death of 23 of them last Tuesday.

Lack of antidote at the primary health centre and Chhapra Sadar Hospital had forced the doctors to refer the students of Gandaman Primary School, suffering from food poisoning after consuming the midday meal on July 16, to Patna. The delay had resulted in the deaths.

A week on, most primary health centres still do not possess the antidote to the common insecticide or most other poisons.

Deepak Kumar Singh, a doctor at a primary health centre in Begusarai, said: “We do not have an antidote for any poison. Atropine is used for the treatment of organophosphorus poisoning. Neither do we have PAM (pralidoxine) used to treat most other poisoning cases.”

Singh said the health centre gets 10-15 poisoning cases every month.

He also said: “Organophosphorus is easily available. Those who want to commit suicide often consume it. We cannot treat them as we often do not have the medicine and have to refer such cases to the sadar hospital.”

If the condition in the districts is appalling, it is no better in the capital.

Mahendra Prasad, the medical officer in-charge of a primary health centre at Phulwarisharif said neither PAM nor any other antidote was available at his healthcare facility.

“On Sunday, the civil surgeon directed all the medical officers in-charge to ensure the availability of PAM and other antidotes at their centre. We shall purchase the medicines soon,” he said.

Asked how they treat poisoning patients, Prasad said: “We make the patient drink concentrated salt solution. But we can do that only if the patient is conscious. If the patient is unconscious or the case is complicated, we refer him or her to the nearest medical college and hospital.”

Officials of the health department, however, said primary health centres would soon have all the antidotes.

R.P. Ojha, the spokesperson of the department, told The Telegraph: “Vyasji, the principal secretary of our department, has directed the officials of primary health centres, sadar hospitals and additional primary health centres to ensure the availability of antidotes including PAM. Soon, every health centre would stock the antidote.”