Lingdok food poisoning brings 21 more to hospital

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY DETAILED INVESTIGATION BEGINS TO IDENTIFY CAUSE
AMEET OBEROI
GANGTOK, 05 Jan: Twenty-one more patients arrived at the STNM Hospital here today with suspected food poisoning, raising the total number of patients with such complaints from Lingdok village to 81. The mass food-poisoning, suspected to have spread at an Antheysti Kriya at a house there on 01 January has claimed one life – that of 43-year-old Shanti Rai who passed away yesterday.

While most patients are being released after being checked, ten are still admitted at the STNM Hospital undergoing further treatment. Of these, the condition of 35-year-old Saru Acharya, admitted in the ICU, remains worrying. She was brought to the hospital in critical condition but her condition is now improving, inform the Medical Superintendent Dr. Uma Pradhan. The MS further informs that the family of the patient has also been offered the option of referral.
In all, 21 patients were admitted at STNM Hospital, of whom 11 were discharged yesterday after they had recovered sufficiently.
Meanwhile, a team from the Prevention of Food Adulteration [PFA] Cell has visited the house, from where the food poisoning is believed to have spread, and collected samples of the food items and food materials. These will now be tested at the food testing lab here even as samples have also been sent to the Regional Food Testing Lab at Guwahati and Kolkata, the MS informs.
Another team from the Micro-Biology Cell has collected water samples from the area for testing, while a team from the disease cell has also paid a visit to the village to ascertain if there was any disease prevailing in the area, she further added.
Dr. Pradhan informs that the Health Department has now started its investigation to ascertain the reason behind the food poisoning and that culture samples taken from the patients had already been sent for testing and culture report. This will take 72 hours to be processed.
“On the day when the patients started to arrive at the hospital, we had no option but to go for life saving or symptomatic treatment for the suspected food poisoning as the number of patients was very high; but now, as most of them have been disccharged we have started the investigation,” the MS explains.
“It is very unfortunate that we lost a patient to food poisoning. We tried our best, but her condition was already very critical when she was brought to the hospital as she was brought quite late and her blood pressure was very low. Because of the delay, her body did not respond to treatment, which led to her demise,” the MS said.
Meanwhile, the patients admitted in the hospital are being provided round-the-clock attendance and are being checked regularly by doctors. There have been no complaints from any of the patients [admitted or discharged] as all medical help, such as medicine has been provided by the hospital and the patients have been further advised to drink only boiled water as a precautionary measure.