By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eastern Cape Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth: Photo Credit:
The Eastern Cape Department of Health has expressed concern regarding possible food poisoning in schools after 120 pupils were transported by provincial Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to Frontier Hospital in Komani.
Eastern Cape health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the pupils, aged 8 to 19, experienced stomach ache, vomiting, and itchiness.
Fifty of them are in a stable condition at Frontier Hospital in Komani.
“The last one arrived just after six in the evening in a condition presenting with vomiting. She had to be admitted to the ICU. By midnight she was reportedly responding to treatment. She is in a stable condition,” Kupelo said.
Kupelo said the children were eating different food items when they started feeling unwell.
“The children were reportedly served various food items, including fizzy drinks and snacks. They call it amashwam-sham and muffins.”
Eastern Cape MEC for Health, Nomakhosazana Meth has called for food safety inspections to be intensified and for action to be taken against shop owners found to be selling expired goods.
“We are calling on municipalities working with relevant stakeholders like law enforcement agencies to intensify the food safety inspection operations because we cannot afford to have shop owners selling expired goods to our children, which at times includes expired baby formula.
“The law must take its course against shop owners selling expired food items,” said Meth.
The latest incident comes amid increasing incidents of food poisoning among school children, and a focus on expired foods and snacks at spaza shops.
Last week, tragedy struck Onkgopotse Tiro Primary School after a Grade 3 boy died from alleged food poisoning.
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) confirmed the pupil died at the Tshepisong Clinic.
According to the department, two Grade 3 boys from the school complained of stomach cramps in class and were rushed to the clinic.
The pupils had bought and consumed a pack of biscuits from a local spaza shop in the area, according to information at the department’s disposal.
The Foodstuffs, Cosmetics, and Disinfectants Act 54 of 1972 and the National Health Act of 2003 empower municipalities to conduct food safety inspections blitz, fine transgressors, close shops that don’t comply with the law, and make arrests.