[ 2017-11-01 ]

Over 50 GHANASS students hospitalized after ‘food poisoning’
Over 50 students of the Ghana Senior High School
(GHANASS) at Koforidua in the Eastern Region, are
receiving treatment at the St. Joseph’s Hospital
following a suspected food poisoning.

The students; both male and female, were rushed to
the hospital on Monday after they complained of
stomach aches after eating ‘waakye’ from the
school’s canteen on Sunday.

When Citi News visited the emergency ward of the
hospital, some students were being attended to by
nurses on duty.

Some of the students had been put on drips,
whilst others had been discharged and were in the
process of completing documentation to confirm
their release.

“I bought waakye at the bush canteen and in the
evening on Sunday, I started running, others who
also ate at the dining hall also started
complaining of tummy ache so we were rushed
here,” one of the affected students told Citi
News.

The situation forced some parents to rush to the
hospital to check on their wards.

A visibly worried parent, Naa Shika, explained
that “I was at work when my daughter called me
that she has been admitted at this hospital so I
had quickly stop whatever I was doing to come
here. She told me her tummy aches and I am really
worried about it, as you can see she’s in pain
now, but I can’t really say if it is food
poisoning even though a lot of the students are
also on admission here.”

Dr. David Kupualor, the Medical Director in charge
of the St Joseph’s Hospital said the facility
was trying its best to manage the situation.

“A lot of students were rushed here from Sunday
evening and Monday with complaints about stomach
aches, clinical research done on them indicated
they had diarrhea so we quickly administered
treatment and medication and some are on admission
while others have been treated and discharged”.

Dr. Kupualor revealed that samples of the stools
have been sent to the Regional Disease Control for
further examinations.

“Officials from the disease control unit were
here with the director of health and some samples
of stools were collected by them for further
investigations.”

The Assistant Headmaster of GHANASS in charge of
Academics, Frederick Kwaku Owusu, called for calm
among parents.

“I would want to assure parents that their wards
are in safe hands. It was on Sunday when some
students complained about tummy ache so they were
sent to the school’s clinic, but on Monday more
students kept reporting at the school’s clinic
about same stomach aches so we hurriedly rushed
them to the St. Joseph’s Hospital,” he said.

The Assistant Headmaster said the school
authorities suspect the situation was as a result
of the food eaten by the students after their
parents visited that weekend.

“We suspect that the students had overeaten the
foods their parents brought on visiting that
weekend, some others also kept the left over and
took it the next day.”

School canteen closed down for probe

Frederick Kwaku Owusu however revealed that, the
school canteen has been closed down as part of
investigations.

“Initially, we thought it was the normal
students complaint, but upon further interactions,
some students said they bought some food from the
school’s canteen. There is a canteen in the
school, but it is not managed by school
authorities, so the school management met and we
have closed down the canteen as part of
investigations.”

Meanwhile, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) in
the Eastern Region, has also commenced their
investigations into the cause of the suspected
food poisoning.

Source - citifmonline.com/bbc.com

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