Food Poisoning Hits Abutia Senior High School: 23 Students Rushed To Hospital After Eating Rice Meal

• 23 students of Abutia SHS were rushed to the hospital on Friday after eating a rice meal on campus suspected to have been contaminated
• All 23 students showed classic symptoms of food poisoning - abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhoea - and said they started after eating fried rice from the school's canteen
• The school has not responded to the matter but the public health unit of the hospital where the students were admitted has launched an investigation

Abutia Senior High School in the Volta Region has been hit with a suspected case of food poisoning after students ate a rice meal on Wednesday, July 19 and Thursday, July 20, 2023.

Twenty-three students of the school were on Friday rushed to the hospital and admitted there after complaining of abdominal pains. Some of the students were vomiting and having diarrhoea.

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According to a report by state-owned Ghana News Agency (GNA), the physician assistant at the Mater Ecclesiae Hospital at Sokode, where the students were admitted, said the influx of students compelled the small facility to pair the victims on one bed.

All students showed classic symptoms of food poisoning

The physician assistant Claude Dziseaku told the news agency that food poisoning was high on the list of the possible causes of the abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhoea among the students who were rushed to the facility because they all showed the symptoms.

The Public Health Unit of the hospital has, however, taken up the case for a thorough investigation.

Reports about food poisoning at senior high schools are not uncommon but they usually involve a small number of students. However, in 2019 60 students of Archbishop Porters Senior High School in Takoradi were hospitalised due to food poisoning.

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Students have been responding to treatment

A final year student of the senior high school and a victim told the GNA that she and her colleagues started experiencing abdominal pains, followed by vomiting and diarrhoea shortly after eating fried rice from the school canteen.

The school has not issued an official statement on the incident.

The victims have, meanwhile, been responding to treatment. Some of them were discharged on Saturday, July 22, 2023.

22 people admitted in hospital after eating food suspected to be contaminated

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that a small farming community in the Oti Region was gripped by an incident of food poisoning in May this year.

The incident happened on Sunday, May 14, 2023, after the food was served at a funeral held on the same day.

At least 22 people who ate the variety of foods served at the event were hospitalised.

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Waakye allegedly claims 5 lives

Also, in January 2023, YEN.com.gh reported that about 5 people were reported dead after allegedly eating waakye from a popular food joint at Oyibi in the Greater Accra Region.

The local delicacy also left some 40 hospitalised, the dead including a pregnant woman.

The victims are said to have complained of severe stomach aches in what is suspected to be food poisoning.

FDA shuts down Marwako East Legon following reports of food poisoning

Also, YEN.com.gh reported a few months ago that Twitter was in chaos after numerous people came out to report their horrible experiences of food poisoning after eating at a Marwako food chain.

A popular tweep started the complaint, and multiple people subsequently came out to narrate their horrible experiences.

The FDA has since come out to announce the closure of the food joint in a post on its official Twitter handle.

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Source: YEN.com.gh