Over 40 students hospitalised after ‘food poisoning’

HARIPUR: As many as 41 students of a local seminary in the hilly area of Khanpur suffered food poisoning and were hospitalised, official sources said on Thursday.

Sources in the Trauma Centre told newsmen that 41 students of a local madrassa in the remote hilly Muslimabad village of Khanpur Tehsil were brought to the health facility with severe vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain in the middle of the night on Wednesday.

“We received the information of the incident at around 12.30 am and asked the doctors and nursing staff from the DHQ to rush to the Trauma Centre,” said Dr Mohsin Raza Turabi, medical superintendent DHQ Haripur.

He said that by 1am, a total of 41 students aged 5 to 14 years, were shifted to the Trauma Centre with diarrhea and vomiting; however, 20 of them were seriously dehydrated. He said that the doctors and paramedic and nursing staff washed their stomachs, performed resuscitation and helped them stabilize by 4am.

Dr Mohsin, who also supervised the resuscitation process of the ailing madrassa students till their recovery, said that all the patients were shifted to DHQ hospital when their condition stabilised medically.

“Thank God, the doctors and their subordinate staff treated the students properly and saved the lives of all of them,” he said.To a question, Dr Mohsin ruled out involvement of any mischievous element in the case and said that the circumstantial evidence showed that the students suffered from food poisoning, which could be due to stale food or the contaminated water. However, he claimed that the samples from the stomachs of all the students have been collected and sent for forensic analysis to determine the causes.

It was observed that the Trauma Centre administration had to treat and provide infusion to the ailing students while lying on the stretchers, vehicles lying more than one on a single bed as the Trauma Centre was short of beds which also infuriated the attendants of the students.

Meanwhile, officials of the Khanpur Police Station said that the students had mash daal in the dinner which was presumably stale and caused the food poisoning. Police officials said that the medrassa administration had not registered any complaint of the incident.