Over 150 fall ill after community meal

PATIALA: At least 150 residents of Faridpur Gujran village, around about 8 kms from Rajpura, fell ill after consuming meal from a community kitchen organized in Sirhind to commemorate the sacrifice of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons.
The villagers had cooked food for the community on Monday and put up two stalls — one in the village and the other on National Highway 44.Around midnight, seven villagers had to be rushed to the civil hospital in Rajpura with symptoms of food poisoning.
Soon after, another six residents had to be taken to the hospital and by Tuesday morning 60 were undergoing treatment at the hospital’s emergency ward for food poisoning.
Senior medical officer, Rajpura, S D Singh said those hospitalized showed symptoms of nausea and diarrhoea and were being administered IV fluids along with some antibiotics. District epidemiologist Gurmeet Singh said about 150 patients were admitted in civil hospital, out of whom 110 were discharged by Tuesday evening after their condiction improved.
District civil surgeon Manjit Singh said soon after the patients started coming to the hospital, health teams visited the village and took samples of food, containers and drinking water supplied in the village to ascertain the exact cause of disease.
The samples have been sent for examination. He said the district epidemiologist and other teams of doctors had been stationed in the village.