Three more die of food poisoning

SIKKA, East Nusa Tenggara: Three more people died on Friday, bringing the number of fatalities to eight following a recent food poisoning incident in the East Nusa Tenggara regency of Sikka.

On the same day, six others were still being treated at the TC Hillers Hospital in Maumere, the capital of Sikka regency.

Doctors have not been able to determine the exact cause of the incident, but preliminary investigations appeared to show that the outbreak could be traced back to fish. Five of the eight fatalities died quickly after they ate cooked fish on Monday, while three others died in the hospital on Friday.

The eight victims were Jubaida, 40, Nahawia, 26, Nasrudin, 25, Sulastri, 20, Nasring, 13, Windari, 5, Arham, 10 and Suhaini, 11.

They were residents of Semparong subdistrict in Maumere.

Ignatius H. Keron, the head of the Sikka health agency, said that the agency had taken urine samples from the victims and these had been sent to a laboratory in Bali in order to enable the precise cause of the incident to be determined. -- JP