Several students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Lakkidi area of Wayanad district in Kerala are undergoing treatment at a local hospital after they fell ill due to suspected food poisoning, an official said on Monday, January 30. More than 60 students are presently admitted in the hospital following vomiting and diarrhoea, an officer of Vythiri police station said, adding that the health condition of all of them was stable.
The officer said students have been getting admitted to the hospital since Thursday. However, from Sunday night, a large number of children from the school complained of stomach problems and were taken to the hospital, he said.
A health officer of the area said that they were collecting information about the exact number of students who fell ill and the reasons for the same. There are 486 students studying at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, a government-run boarding school.
The state has been witnessing a spate of food poisoning related illness in the past month. Earlier, on January 2, a woman nurse working at the Kottayam Medical College died after allegedly consuming food from an eatery. As many as 21 others, apart from her, fell sick after eating at the same eatery, but they all recovered. The eatery was subsequently shut down and its chief cook and owner were arrested by the police.
In Pathanamthitta, over 100 people had suffered from suspected food poisoning on January 1 after allegedly eating at a baptism function in a church near Keezhvaipur area of the district. The government had said that it had taken action against the caterers involved.
The Kerala government, meanwhile, banned the sale of food parcels without slips or stickers with details of expiry date in the state.