Achimota JSS students suffer from food poisoning?

Accra, June 16, GNA - Over 100 students of Achimota Primary/JSS allegedly suffered severe stomach upsets on Saturday, June 12. While the students blamed the sickness on their previous day's supper, the authorities blamed it on "various illnesses".

The students, mostly girls from the JSS, were rushed to the school's hospital, where they were treated and discharged.

Twenty-two of them were admitted but were discharged the following day.

On Wednesday morning when GNA went to the school, some of the students who claimed they had just been discharged confirmed the incident.

They said they had stomach upset and pains, accompanied by vomiting, and attributed the sickness to the previous day's dinner of kenkey and sardine with pepper.

When contacted, Dr Justice A. Hoffman, Senior Medical Officer in charge of Achimota Hospital, dismissed the claims of the students, saying the condition of the students could not have been caused by the food.

He said most of them were diagnosed of various illnesses and cited malaria, headache, acute gastro-enteritis and Upper Respiratory Track Infections (URTI).

Dr Hoffman said two of the students were put on drip but they were later discharged.

He said the illnesses the students complained of were normal ones, but ''the only thing is that they (students) came to the hospital in bulk.''

''Although the house mistresses traced the problem to the food, after treating them it was realised that it had nothing to do with the food.

''There is no cause for alarm; it is just the normal complaints from students''.

Mrs Charlotte Brew-Graves, Headmistress of the School, said she suspected that the students were instigated by food vendors, who the authorities have since last term stopped from selling on campus.

She said there were over 1,000 students in the boarding house, and they ate the same food together.

"Why should only 100 of them be affected if it was food poisoning?'' she asked.

Mrs Brew-Graves said the school doctor warned the authorities about the outbreak of cholera in the surrounding villages early this year, and as a result, she stopped food sellers from coming to the compound.

According to her, due to the size of the school, it is difficult for them to monitor activities of the vendors, and children manage to buy from these people.

The day in question, for example, there were boiled corn and kenkey sellers on campus, and the ''big girls'' went and bought them, Mrs Brew-Graves said '' The problem could have come from these sellers''.

''Those girls who bought from these sellers would be found, out and the authorities will sanction them to deter others from misbehaving,'' she said.