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43 students hospitalized over suspected poisoning
Health workers at Mubende Hospital attend to students admitted in the emergency ward over suspected food poisoning. PHOTO BY JOSEPHINE NNABBAALE
MUBENDE. At least 43 students of Kitenga Secondary School were on Monday rushed to Mubende Regional Referral Hospital in critical condition over alleged food poisoning.
The students are said to have started experiencing abdominal pains, severe headache and vomiting after eating food suspected to have been laced with poison on Sunday evening.
Mr Alex Wabwire, the Mubende District Police Commander said blood samples, stool have been extracted from the victims and taken to Kampala for examination to ascertain the exact cause of the strange illness.
“We are waiting for doctors to give us a detailed report that would inform our investigations but poison is highly probable,” Wabwire said on Monday.
Richard Nasasira, one of the victims said: “we ate our supper at 7:00 pm (on Sunday evening ) and left for preps ,but when we returned to the dormitories at 10:00pm some students started complaining of severe stomachache and headache and the following morning, every student was complaining about the same.”
Godfrey Kizza, another victim said their condition could have been a result of the poor sanitation at the school especially in the kitchen which he said is too dirty and the color of water used to prepare the meals is brown with algae .
“ Even some of the toilets we use are already filled up and we suspect this to have partly contributed to the current situation we are in ,” Kizza said.
But Mr Geoffrey Luswata ,the school head teacher dismissed claims by some students that there is poor hygiene at the school and urged students and parents to remain calm as police investigate the matter .
“We were also surprised in the morning (Monday) when most of the students were complaining of stomachache” he said.
However, some hours later Luswata was arrested to help police with their investigations, according to Wabwire
“This is a serious matter and if it is discovered that the students were poisoned, he (Luswata) will definitely be charged with criminal negligence,” he said.
He said cooks will also be summoned to provide more information that will help investigations and lead to the arrest of the culprits.
Over time, there has been increasing cases of food poisoning in the country.
Some food poisoning cases reported earlier
In February last year, a total of 32 pupils of Namutumba primary school were rushed to Iganga hospital after taking poisoned porridge.
On December 23 2014, in Luuka district, a family of eight was poisoned and admitted in critical condition. One person, a baby was reported dead.
In August 2014, grief engulfed residents of Pida Lord Village, Ongako Sub-County in Gulu District after a 61-year-old woman was found dead after she allegedly fed two of her grandchildren with poison.
On June 19, 2014, seven members of the same family in Kayunga District were admitted in critical condition after eating bread suspected to have been laced with poison.
In June 2013, five members of the same family died after suspected food poisoning and on April 2, 2013, 35 people were on Tuesday admitted to Kasese Municipality Health Centre III after eating suspected poisoned food.
