April 27, 2007
IT was meant to be good for the body.
But milk that was distributed by some primary schools in Kedah may
have caused widespread food poisoning.
More than 100 students in three schools have fallen sick with
diarrhoea and vomiting since the first case struck on 16Apr.
The latest incident happened at a Sungai Petani primary school
yesterday, where more than 50 students were struck down with food
poisoning.
The kids, aged 8 to 11, had reportedly consumed the milk provided
by the school, reported Utusan Malaysia.
They fell sick during recess time in the morning and were rushed to
the Kuala Muda clinic.
The expiry date on the milk boxes read 27Dec2007.
Six students were hospitalised.
Mr Shahidan Mat Isa's daughter was one of the victims who were
hospitalised.
The 36-year-old said: 'I was told most of the 50 victims came from
the second, third and fifth standard.
THIRD CASE IN 10 DAYS
This is the third case of food poisoning to hit primary schools in
Kedah in the past 10 days.
The education ministry is in a fix because the latest case struck
after it had temporarily halted the distribution of milk to all
primary schools in the northern states of Kedah, Perak, Perlis and
Penang, after the first case struck.
That was on 17 Apr, when 30 pupils from Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala
Kedah were rushed to the Alor Star hospital after they started
vomiting and suffering from an attack of diarrhoea.
Again, it was linked to drinking the milk distributed by the
school.
The previous day, 18 students from a Tamil school were rushed to
hospital, after they were reportedly poisoned by the milk, also
distributed by the school.
In all the cases, the milk was packed in cartons at the
schools.
There was also another food poisoning case in Perak.
The education ministry is investigating