Employees in Sunter rushed to hospital with food poisoning

JAKARTA (JP): Some 186 employees of PT Pulogadung Pawitra Laksana, an assembler of Isuzu Panther minivans located on Jl. Gaya Motor in Sunter district, North Jakarta, were rushed to three separate hospitals on Friday after complaining of nausea and giddiness.

Both the victims and medical practitioners said food poisoning was the most probable cause of the incident.

"The menu for Thursday's lunch were meat, soup and butter- fried shrimp. But, the food tasted rather strange," Chandra, an employee at the plant, said at the Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta.

He, however, declined to disclose the caterer that provided the meal in the company's canteen.

Another employee, however, said that the caterer was Cita Rasa Catering.

Dede, a staffer at the company, hinted that the management had hired a number of catering companies to provide daily meals for the employees, not only one.

Haryadi, a doctor at the Pertamina Hospital indicated that the employees had suffered food poisoning.

"Our diagnosis revealed that it was a case of mild poisoning. We're still investigating what caused it," he said, adding that the doctors were examining samples of the employees' feces.

The factory employees said that they started feeling giddy and nauseous hours after they finished Thursday's lunch.

Another employee, Yusuf, said he started to feel the symptoms early Friday morning, some 18 hours after he had lunch.

"I felt dizzy and nauseous in the morning. But I forced myself to go to work as it seemed to be only a minor ailment," the 23- year-old employee in the company's painting unit said at the Pertamina Hospital.

After numerous employees complained of suffering from the same symptoms, the management then decided to send them all Friday midday to three separate hospitals.

Some 62 employees were admitted to the Pertamina Hospital and 45 others to the UKI hospital in Cawang, East Jakarta

The remaining 84 employees were brought to Sukamulya Hospital on Jl. Tawes in North Jakarta on Friday.

Most of the employees were allowed to leave hospital on the same day. At the Pertamina Hospital, however, some 12 employees were still being treated on Friday afternoon.

The employees were seen enjoying their lunch at a Big Bird bus parked in front of the hospital at 1 p.m. A plaster on the back of each of their hands indicated that they had all been earlier fed intravenously in the hospital.

Mudjono, a staffer at the UKI Hospital, said seven employees were still being treated at the hospital on Friday afternoon.

"The employees were brought to the hospital at 8 a.m. in the morning, but most of them were allowed to go home after receiving first aid," he said.

Meanwhile, Adji, a staffer at Sukamulya Hospital said nine out of the 84 employees were still receiving medical treatment at the hospital on Friday afternoon. (asa)