Food poisoning claims 101 victims
Food poisoning claims 101 victims
Slamet Susanto, Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta
Health centers and a hospital in Samigaluh district,
Kulonprogo regency, admitted 101 people from Wednesday to
Thursday for suspected food poisoning, all of whom had attended a
wedding reception in Banjarsari subdistrict here.
As of Friday afternoon, 50 people were still receiving
treatment at a local hospital for food poisoning; the other 51
residents had already been discharged.
The incident began on Wednesday when dozens of Banjarsari
residents pitched in to help Tukiman, 55, prepare dishes for
Thursday's reception, which he was hosting.
Partiyem, one of the helpers, said she and a few others had
tasted some of the food they had cooked.
On Wednesday afternoon, at least eight people felt dizzy and
vomited repeatedly just after eating some of the wedding food,
and went home to rest and recover.
Most people, particularly the host, were unaware that the
eight had suffered from food poisoning, so Tukiman went ahead
with the wedding reception as planned.
The disaster continued on Thursday when, after the party, the
guests went one by one to the Samigaluh community health center
for medical treatment. Most of them were vomiting and suffering
from dizziness.
Partiyem said more and more people came to the health center
seeking treatment throughout the day, so that it could not
accommodate any more patients. The wedding guests thus went to a
hospital in Samigaluh district.
Karti recalled that she still felt well after she had eaten at
the reception at noon on Thursday, but that afternoon, she began
feeling dizzy and vomiting, and had to go to the toilet
repeatedly.
"I was scared, so I went to the community health center, where
I was then told by a staffer that I had to go to Bhakti Husodo
Hospital for medical treatment," she said. Due to limited space,
however, some residents had to rest on the floor.
Health development head Bambang Haryatno at the Kulonprogo
Health Office said the hospital had used 600 intravenous feeding
bottles for the ill-fated wedding guests.
"We have obtained samples of the food and are running tests in
our laboratory to determine whether the food was the cause of the
incident," he said on Friday.