According to Report No. 261/BC-ATVSTP of the Lai Chau Provincial Sub-Department of Food Safety and Hygiene, many cases have been hospitalized suspected of food poisoning after eating strange fruits picked from nature at the Ethnic Minority Boarding School (PTDTBT) and Lang Mo Primary PTDTBT School, Nhieu Sang village, Tua Sin Chai commune, Lai Chau province.
More than 200 students in Lai Chau showed symptoms of red rash in the mouth, abdominal pain, nausea... after eating a strange red fruit, like a cherry. Many of them had to be hospitalized for treatment.
After using the above fruit, many people developed symptoms such as headache, dizziness, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, body fatigue, numbness in the tip of the tongue and were taken to medical facilities for treatment.
Faced with the above situation, the Food Safety Department requested the Lai Chau Provincial Department of Health to focus on directing medical examination and treatment facilities to mobilize resources and actively treat patients to ensure health and life safety.
At the same time, the local health sector needs to coordinate with the Department of Agriculture and Environment and functional agencies to urgently verify and investigate the incident, determine the cause of poisoning and strengthen monitoring and supervision to promptly detect similar cases that may arise.
The Food Safety Department also requested coordination with the Department of Education and Training to organize propaganda and education on food safety knowledge for school boards, teachers and students; and at the same time requested educational institutions to prepare food poisoning prevention plans, especially for school kitchens and the risk of collective poisoning.
In addition, functional agencies need to strengthen warnings to people about the risk of poisoning when using strange fruits or plants with natural toxins. People are advised not to eat wild animals and strange plants when the origin, characteristics and safe processing methods are not clear. When symptoms such as numbness in the lips, numbness in the tongue, numbness in limbs, vomiting, abdominal pain or shortness of breath appear, they should quickly go to the nearest medical facility for timely emergency treatment.
For ethnic minority areas, communication work needs to choose forms and languages suitable for each specific target group.
The Food Safety Department requests localities to strictly implement Directive No. 38/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on strengthening food poisoning prevention; Official Dispatch No. 7598/BYT-ATTP on strengthening ensuring food safety in schools and collective kitchens; and Official Dispatch No. 848/BYT-ATTP on ensuring food safety in street food business.
The Food Safety Department requested the Lai Chau Provincial Department of Health to continue to monitor and update the developments of the case, make quick reports according to regulations and soon publicize the investigation results to warn the community of the risk.
