55 Discharged from hospital after food poisoning
More than 55 members of the Fetentaa Refugee Camp in the Berekum municipality in the Brong Ahafo Region, who got ill after eating jollof rice at a wedding at the camp, have been discharged. This was after they received treatment at the Berekum Holy Family Hospital.
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The food was suspected to contain poison.
The Berekum Municipal Director of Health, Dr Osei Kufour Afreh, told the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview that the incident was suspected to be a case of simple food poisoning.
He explained that on Saturday, September 6, more than 300 people attended a wedding at the refugee camp and after consuming the jollof rice served at the reception,some of them started complaining of stomach ache.
He said around 2 a.m. on Sunday, the affected people started reporting at the hospital where they were admitted to the Emergency Ward.
Dr Afreh said three women prepared the food and that samples of the rice had been sent to the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital for investigation.
He added that food samples had been sent to the Food and Drugs Authority for investigations to find out which type of poison caused the problem.
He said a Municipal Emergency Rapid Response Team had already been set up because of the Ebola virus scare and the cholera outbreak in the country to deal with emergency situations and that when the problem of the food poisoning was reported to the team, there was a prompt response.
Dr Afreh said the 12-member team was a multi-sectoral one comprising representatives of the municipal assembly, the National Commission for Civic Education, the municipal health directorate, the National Disaster Management Organisation, the municipal environmental health directorate and the district security committee.
