LARKANA: More than 170 people, including 71 children, suffered food poisoning and many of them fainted reportedly after eating stale chicken dish at a ceremony for ‘circumcision’ in Rahim Bhughio village, eight kilometres from here on Airport Road on Saturday.

The villagers were brought to emergency unit of the Chandka Medical College Hospital where Dr Insaf Magsi, additional medical superintendent, told Dawn that they had received 170 patients. Many of them were admitted while others were provided treatment and permitted to go home as they were relatively stable, he said.

He said that Sindh Minister for Health Dr Azra Pechuho was in touch with him and getting information about the incident. Hardly 40 patients were still admitted to casualty and medicine units and all were stable, he claimed.

People were seen running into the hospital in confusion for seeking urgent treatment and they were often put on one bed due to limited space while children were shifted to Chandka Medical College Hospital’s children hospital.

Dr Rabil Noonari, chief casualty medical officer, said that they had treated 86 patients at the department.

Meanwhile, GDA’s MPA Moazzam Abbasi, Mayor Khair Mohammad Shaikh, chairman district council Khan Sangro and assistant commissioner Iqbal Ahmed Tunio arrived at the hospital and asked hospital managers to provide adequate treatment to patients.

“We had received 71 cases of food poisoning in the morning and all were allowed to go home in the evening after treatment,” said Dr Abdullah Chandio, in-charge of the emergency unit of CMCH children hospital.

Food collected for analysis

A team of Sindh Food Authority (SFA) visited the village, recorded statement of Jawed Memon who held the programme and his brother Zamir Memon and collected food samples for chemical analysis.

The team also visited the shop on Bakrani Road in Larkana from where the villagers had purchased chickens for the event and examined the premises and the birds.

They asked the shop owner Mushtaq Baloch about the chickens and their health and later sealed the shop for further investigation.

Mohammad Aslam Shar, a member of the team, told journalists that the samples would be sent to Pakistan Standards and Quality Control, Karachi for analysis.

“We will get a report within three days and further action will be taken in the light of the report,” he said.

The team members also met parents, heirs of patients and patients. The team did not rule out the possibility in its preliminary report that food served to invitees had been cooked earlier. It had also handed over some samples to police for investigation, said the sources.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2020