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60 hospitalised after food poisoning in Andhra tribal hostel
Around 60 girls of a tribal welfare residential school in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district were hospitalised on Saturday allegedly due to food poisoning
Around 60 girls of a tribal welfare residential school in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district were hospitalised on Saturday allegedly due to food poisoning, district officials said, adding all are out of danger.
The incident took place at Jamiguda tribal welfare residential school for girls of Korrai gram panchayat in Dumbriguda block in Araku valley on Friday evening. Of the 650 girls staying at the school hostel, about 60 students experienced symptoms such as vomiting and abdominal pain, ASR district collector AS Dinesh Kumar said.
Kumar further said prima facie, it was revealed that the girls were served with a curry made with contaminated eggs for dinner. “Hours after the meal, students began experiencing vomiting, prompting immediate medical intervention. Meanwhile, one student was diagnosed with malaria and is receiving special treatment,” he said.
On receiving the information about the incident, district tribal welfare authorities rushed to the school and shifted them to the government area hospital at Araku, he said.
A team of doctors monitored their condition after administering them with saline and antibiotics. “Now, their condition is stable and they are recovering,” the collector said.
An official statement from the chief minister’s office said chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu spoke to the collector and district medical and health department officials to enquire about the condition. He asked them to see that the hospitalised students get the best treatment.
The collector, along with joint collector Abishek visited the hospital to check on the students and consult with the medical staff about the condition of the students. AP ST Commission chairman Dr D V G Sankara Rao also spoke to the officials and enquired about the situation.
Kumar assured that actions would be taken against the erring officials to prevent the recurrence of such events. He said that strict instructions were given to the authorities to maintain hygiene in the welfare hostels. “We shall also introduce a policy that requires daily menus to be photographed and sent to the project officers of Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) for monitoring,” he said.
This is the fourth incident of students falling ill due to food poisoning in the state. On August 18, three children, including two girls, all below nine years of age, died and 74 were taken ill after suspected food poisoning after having a meal at a hostel run by a religious institution at Kailasapatnam village of Kotavuratla Mandal of Narsipatnam block in Anakapalli district.
On August 21, 70 students at Chittoor Apollo Health University fell seriously ill after consuming contaminated food, with all the affected individuals currently undergoing treatment in the Chittoor Government Hospital.
On August 27, as many as 342 students fell ill due to contaminated food in a single day allegedly due to lack of proper hygiene in the hostel mess.
