Labels: 12 students in Philippines fall sick after eating popcorn

Posted on September 29, 2019 by Douglas Powell

Michael Jaucian of Inquirer.net reports 12 grade 7 students from Polangui General Comprehensive High School were hospitalized on Friday due to food poisoning after mistakenly adding a drying agent they thought was flavoring to popcorn, physicians said Saturday.

Based on diagnosis by the attending physician at Josefina Belmonte Duran Memorial District Hospital in Ligao City where the students were being treated, the patients experienced food poisoning after they ate the popcorn they shared during recess.

Ella Rose Delos Santos, one of the victims, said they mixed what they thought was flavoring with the popcorn their classmate bought from a store in Legazpi City.

“We put some flavor on it. After several minutes eating it, most of us felt bad and started complaining of dizziness and body ache,” Delos Santos said.

Most of the victims felt severe headache, stomachache, and were vomiting after consuming the popcorn.
They were treated and are now in stable condition.

Doctor Ma. Judy Manlangit said the students had mistakenly mixed desiccant with the popcorn.

Blast from the past: I’ve had great students

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Carol came by for dinner tonight.

She’s only been living in Australia for 9 years, Amy and I met her in Paris in 2007, and she worked in my lab in 2001.

She’s the one in the pink top, on the left.

Carol from Ireland has worked for all kinds of food companies, still remembers my dictates about check your damn e-mail, but couldn’t figure out how to e-mail me.

Regardless, it was great catching up, and she’s now experienced enough to have some of that shared cynicism.

She even said she learned a few things from me.

I don’t miss being a prof, but I do miss guiding students.

So I coach hockey.

2 students at UK school sickened with E. coli O157

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Paul Cargill of the Daily Record writes that a Perth Academy pupil is recovering at home after being struck down by E. coli O157.

The sixth year pupil’s mother, who did not want her son to be named, told the PA he was doing well after coming down with the stomach bug following an expedition which was organised through the school.

It is understood that at least one other Perth Academy pupil took ill with the same strain of the bug after returning from a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award trip, which took place two weeks ago.

The two boys did not return to school this week as expected and the mother who talked to the PA yesterday, confirmed her son was being kept off school to recover.

Consultant in public health medicine Dr Daniel Chandler told the PA: “We can confirm that NHS Tayside and Perth and Kinross Council are together investigating a small number of linked cases of E coli O157 infection.

“Those affected have received appropriate medical treatment and advice.

“Possible sources are currently being investigated and control measures have been put in place to prevent further spread.”

How can that be if the source is unknown? Maybe person-to-person transmission can be limited, but there did it come from originally?

25 students sickened at Brisbane area school after injesting ‘mystical fire’ which they believed was popping candy

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Douglas Powell

About 25 students at a school north of Brisbane became sick eating a substance they believed were lollies.

Paramedics were called to Deception Bay State School, north of Brisbane, about 2.20pm today after students ate the substance.

Queensland ambulance reported that up to 25 children were being treated at the school.

Emergency services were called to the school in the Moreton Bay region after students complained of nausea and ‘burning in their throat.’

Queensland Ambulance later confirmed the Year 4 students ingested Mystical Fire, a novelty substance available from camping stores that is thrown on fire to create multi-coloured flames which the children may have believed was popping candy.

A parent told The Courier-Mail their 10-year-old child was offered the chemicals, described as looking like “white popping candy,” outside of class.

Food detectives: Students investigate mock poisoning in Dubai

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Douglas Powell

What made many of the guests at Noor’s birthday party sick? Why is the school clinic full of students complaining of stomachache, diarrhea and vomiting?

Students from some Dubai schools recently got a chance to investigate such intriguing scenarios, thanks to an initiative launched at the 10th Dubai International Food Safety Conference.

Middle and high school boys and girls donned the roles of “Food Detectives” at the workshops titled so, and used their detective skills to solve the suspected food poisoning cases presented to them.

The Dubai Municipality’s Food Safety Department teamed up with Science Party Dubai to host the special workshops aimed at teaching principles of epidemiological investigation to school children.

Multiple case studies of food poisoning were presented to teams of students who used their detective skills to solve them. They also suggested ways to prevent food poisoning cases.

Arvin Jalali, a ninth grader from GEMS Winchester School told Khaleej Times the students enjoyed learning things that they had not taken seriously earlier.

“Look at all the bacteria around us. How all they can spread! We are really lucky that nothing happened to us so far,” he said.

His schoolmate Imran Hussain Tauqeer said most participants didn’t realise the side effects of what they often do and take for granted.

“Now we know many things about basic food safety. Now we know the importance of hand hygiene, temperature control, and bacteria in raw eggs,” he said.

Teachers present at the workshop echoed the same.

Martha Carol, a teacher with Dar Al Marefa School, said: “They came to know how bacteria grow at certain level of temperature which they feel safe, but is actually not safe. They realized it better when they investigated by themselves.”

Students in Philippines food poisoning incident released from hospital

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Some of the students downed by a food poisoning incident in Calamba, Laguna on Friday have been discharged from the hospital, “News TV Live” reported Saturday.

At least 400 pupils from Real Elementary School on Friday fell ill after eating cupcakes and ice candy served after a story-telling activity.

The event was organized by the Haribon Foundation and sponsored by AMS Electronic Corporation, which also provided the food given to the students.

After eating the snacks, the victims experienced dizziness, stomach ache, and were vomiting.

Samples of the cupcakes and ice candy have already been sent to the Food and Drug Administration for toxicology testing.

But don’t panic: 6 students sick with E. coli from same school in California

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Douglas Powell

An E. coli outbreak in Lodi, California has sickened six elementary school children, requiring one to be hospitalized. The children all attend the same elementary school, but the school has been ruled out as a source of the outbreak.

Two students in Lodi’s Reese Elementary School’s combined second and third-grade class were confirmed on Monday to have become infected with the E. coli bacteria last week. The students were taken to the hospital when they first showed signs of becoming ill.

School principal Gary Odell realized something was going on last Tuesday. Feb. 24. “It came up a week ago. The secretary noticed that four students were out sick and one had gone to the hospital over the weekend. When the three others began showing symptoms, the nurse contacted (the San Joaquin County Department of Public Health),” Odell said.

Odell said the health department investigated the food services department, and the school cafeteria was given a clean bill of health. The bacteria was not coming from the school’s kitchen or the cafeteria. It is really not known where the first child got the infection because there are so many sources of a potential infection. It is just unusual for this many children from the same school to become infected in such a short time.

Parents weren’t notified of the outbreak until Monday evening after letters were sent home with their children. The principal explained the reason for the lateness of the notification, saying that once the health department took over, they had to follow their guidelines. This meant there had to be two confirmed cases before the public was notified to avoid a panic.

‘E. coli festering in the microwave’ surprise for four beer and chips-loving Irish students

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Conor, Padraig, Brian and Paddy are students at Athlone Institute of Technology, and have been supplementing their studies with a diet of beer and chips while dangerous E. coli festers in their microwave.

The lads, all in their 20s, are blissfully unaware of the dangers of their diet and lifestyle, and the consequences of coming into contact with E. coli.

The doctors, including Dr. Nina Byrnes, Dr. Sinead Beirne and Professor Niall Moyna, learn that Conor has a family history of heart problems and is concerned for his own cardiac health.

Brian is addicted to sugar and video games, Padraig is a man who seems to be a little too fond of his pints, and Paddy is the healthiest in this not so healthy student house.

Apart from their dodgy diet, Dr. Nina Byrnes encounters something a little more disturbing. She finds E. coli growing in their much-loved microwave and sends the swab to the lab.

“It grew a very heavy growth of bacteria called E. coli,” she says.

“At the very severe end of E. coli, there’s a particular strain of E. coli that can cause kidney failure and death and that was growing in your microwave.

Terrified by the revelation the lads are quick to sign up to an eight week exercise programme and lifestyle overhaul. But can they ditch their beer-swilling and chip-ingesting ways?

Doctor in the House episode 5 airs Monday 10th November at 9pm on TV3.

335 students sick in Guatemala

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Students who spent the day in the Guatemalan capital said that a lunch of beans and rice had a bad taste, and that the chicken was undercooked, but ate because they were hungry.

The 335 sick students were evaluated by lifeguards, of which 185 were transferred to the National Hospital of Chimaltenango and the rest received care on campus.

125 students victims of food poisoning in French canteen

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Douglas Powell

In yet another outbreak of foodborne illness in France (which Amy helped translate this warm Sunday morning), 125 school students in Lambeth, near Lille, were stricken with stomach pains, vomiting and headaches.

According to Marc-Philippe Daubresse, the Mayor of Lambeth, , this “slight” intoxication was due to the fish. But checks were requested to Sodexo, the provider of meals in the city.

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