Health Dept institutes 5-member committee to look into Lingdok food poisoning incident

GANGTOK, 06 Jan: A five-member committee has been constituted by the Health Care, Health Services & Family Welfare Department to look into all aspects of the food poisoning incident including the epidemiological aspect that brought down 82 people of Lingdok busty with suspected food poisoning on 01 January, informed Secretary, HC, HS&FW Department, Dr. K Bhandari while addressing a press conference today.
The Committee has Dr. V Singhi [Director II] as the chairman, while the other four members are Dr. IL Sharma [senior Additional Director], Dr. Yeli Doma [Joint Director], BB Rai [Food Inspector] and Pema Uden [Chief Consultant Micro-Biologist].

Speaking further on the tragic incident, he said that the committee has been asked to submit their report by 09 January, which will then be submitted to the State Government the next day, on 10 January.
This is a big tragedy and a very worrying situation and we are trying to find out what went wrong, he said and added that the committee had been formed to look into all aspects and trace the cause so that such incidents could be prevented in the future as such ceremonies are a part and parcel of Sikkim and will continue to take place in the State.
It is unfortunate that one of the patients [Shanti Rai] succumbed to her illness, but when she was brought to the STNM Hospital, she was in a very critical condition without recordable pulse and Blood Pressure and the doctors at the STNM Hospital tried their level best to save her, but she did not respond to treatment. Her post mortem was conducted at the hospital, but even the Medico-Legal Expert could not ascertain the exact cause of death, the Secretary said and added that her viscera has been preserved and will be sent to Central Forensic Lab in Kolkata for further tests.
Meanwhile, the other critical female patient [Saru Acharya], who had also been admitted in the ICU was now out of danger and was responding to treatment, he further said.
On 04 January, the Chief Food Inspector and Micro-biologist of the STNM Hospital were instructed to collect all food samples from the house including water samples of that area which has been done and the preliminary report of the Bacteriological Analysis of the water records it to be satisfactory, the Secretary informed.
But this is just the report of the water sample taken from the source and not the house, we have also sent samples for testing to Kolkata and Guwahati and the test reports are still to come in and only then will we be able to know the exact the reason behind the food poisoning, he added.
Earlier, during the conference, the Secretary gave a detailed report pretaining to the food poisioning incident, where he informed that as of today 82 patients had been given medical treatment, while 10 patients were still admitted at the STNM Hopsital, with 04 at the Central Referral Hospital at Tadong and all of them were out of danger and were responding to treatment.
In the end, he further informed that the food poisoning could have been due to bacterial formation or could have been chemical as the place where the food had been cooked was very unhygenic and dirty as the place was littered with chicken and pigeon feathers and droppings.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso, accompanied by the Health Secretary, made a visit to the STNM Hospital today. During his round of the hospital the Chief Secretary also met the victims of the recent food poisoning incident and directed the Medical Superintendent to give all possible medical aid to the victims.
The hospital authorities assured the Chief Secretary that the patients would be discharged within a day or two. Mr Gyatso also asked for the results of the Enquiry to be expedited, to which the Health Secretary gave his compliance. Before his departure, the Chief Secretary also met the other doctors and staff of the hospital and took stock of the running of the STNM hospital.