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Friday, March 18, 2005
84 rushed to hospitals due to food poisoning
By Marna H. Dagumboy
TARLAC -- Eighty-four persons, mostly children, were taken to various hospitals in Tarlac Wednesday night for food poisoning after eating spaghetti served during recognition rites of daycare centers in Concepcion town.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered an investigation into the incident.
She also directed the Department of Health (DOH) to give immediate aid to the
food poisoning victims.
A team of epidemiologists from the Department of Health (DOH) was sent to Barangay Murcia in Concepcion to look into the incident.
Chief Supt. Rowland Albano, Central Luzon police director, is also ordering the Tarlac police to investigate the reported food poisoning incident.
Of the 43 daycare pupils who suffered diarrhea and vomiting spells after eating the spoiled spaghetti Wednesday, 30 are with the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) while 13 are with a government daycare center.
The rest of the victims, reports said, were "visitors" who attended the graduation exercises of the centers.
The children, whose age range from six months to 14 years old, felt dizzy and vomited after eating the home-cooked spaghetti and fried chicken cooked by a certain Nestor Santos. The food served as refreshments after the graduation rites.
Doctors Leilanie Fernandez, Jennifer Postales, Cherrylyn Garcia and Arlene Buli, all resident-physicians of Tarlac Provincial Hospital, said the food poisoning victims are already in stable conditions. At least 80 of the victims were brought to the provincial hospital.
Tarlac Provincial Health Officer Ricardo Ramos has taken samples of the spaghetti and chicken served during the graduation rites for laboratory examination.
The health department said a large number of people were affected because several parents brought home some of the spaghetti and gave this to other household members.
An hour after eating the spoiled food, the victims suffered stomachaches and diarrhea while others began vomiting.
An employee of the Tarlac hospital said some parents were saying that the spaghetti was cooked at 5 p.m. but was served to them between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. already. They did not say why it took that long before the food was served.
The doctors in the hospital said the spaghetti might have been contaminated with "staphyloccocus", a kind of bacteria that grows in ill-prepared food.
Staphyloccocus aureus bacteria or staph bacteria are present on the skin, especially around the nose, mouth, genitals and rectum, and when the skin is broken, it can enter and cause an infection.
The victims were given intravenous fluids to "help replace their body fluids lost during diarrhea." The age of the 84 victims ranged between 0 and 44 years.
Health department personnel conducted rectal swabbing on the victims to determine what components of the spaghetti caused them to fall ill. The samples were sent to Manila for examination.
The food poisoning incident came a week after 27 children in Mabini, Bohol died after eating pesticide-contaminated cassava sweets. More than 100 others also became sick after eating the same snack food. (With Sunnex Luzon)
| Post your experiences to the Sun.Star Graduation section. Click here. | 2005-02-24 04:52:02
mcalvo - My graduation was unforgettable to me and to my classmates. I was so drunk the night before graduation. During the ceremony i dozed to the point of snooring even when i was already standing i was half sleeping. Our dean has to call my name twice and the person behind me has to push me just to wake me up... graduations are memorable...enjoy and congratulations to all graduates!
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(March 18, 2005 issue)
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