Yasothon school shuts for two days after mass food poisoning outbreak

Health officials are conducting a mass cleanup of a school in Muang district of Thailand’s northeastern province of Yasothon, after more than 140 students fell sick yesterday and were rushed to the district hospital for first-aid treatment. Seven of them were admitted.

Upon learning of the mass illness among the students at Municipal 3 School yesterday, Governor Chanchai Sornsriwichai and his senior officials immediately rushed to the school to manage the situation, while health officials investigate the cause of the sickness.

The governor and his staff later visited the sick students undergoing treatment in hospital. Most victims suffered extreme stomach ache, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Samples of food, ingredients, drinking water and fluids from the victims were collected for lab tests.

To ensure safety for the other students and to prevent any disease, if there is one, from spreading, the school was ordered closed today and tomorrow to allow health officials to clean up and fumigate the entire school compound.

The hospital’s director, Dr. Thanomsilp Karnmalee, said yesterday that he suspects food poisoning, but that the true cause will be known when test results become available.

He also said that some of the students were admitted to hospital for observation, because they still had a high fever and were dehydrated.

Meanwhile, in Udon Thani, 12 of the 13 patients admitted to the provincial hospital for treatment for suspected food poisoning, after eating noodles from a local shop, were discharged yesterday, leaving one remaining under observation.

Health officials have collected samples of the food and ingredients from the noddle shop for tests.

The shop’s owner claims that he ran out of salt and used a substance he believed to be salt in the soup. The owner’s son said he was given two small bags of what he thought was salt by a scavenger.