More than 140 students suspected of food poisoning after eating vermicelli soup

After a snack of vermicelli soup with crab soup, 142 elementary school students in District 2 (HCMC) had high fever, diarrhea, and vomiting.

On December 12, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong, Principal of An Phu Primary School (District 2) - said that there are still 4 students being treated at Children's Hospital 1, 57 students continue to stay home from school for their families to monitor, four days after the incident.

"The school sent people to visit and take care of the children with the families. In response to the parents' anger, we posted an apology notice. This incident was unexpected and no one wanted it to happen," said Ms. Phuong.

The school where the incident occurred.

On the morning of December 8, many students suffered from diarrhea, vomiting, and high fevers of 38-40 degrees Celsius. The number of students with these symptoms increased, forcing the school to notify parents and teachers to take them to the hospital. By the afternoon of the same day, 142 students had suffered from these symptoms.

"The school called the kitchen to come and check the food from the previous day, but the lunch food was gone, only the afternoon vermicelli soup with crab soup remained," Ms. Phuong said.

Meals have been provided to the school by Gac Do Company (headquartered in District 2) for the past two years. The chefs have worked at the school for more than 10 years.

"The school has never had an incident related to food safety and hygiene. Many inspection teams from the city have come to work, but the cause has not yet been found. When there are official results, the school will announce them to all parents," Ms. Phuong added.

One parent said her child was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal infection. "He is now healthy and can play normally, but I am still very worried about sending him back to school. Many other parents have called me to share the same story," she said.

Patients treated at District 2 Hospital.

According to the report of the Inter-District Health Inspection Team, the 10:30 lunch of An Phu school includes white rice, steamed egg rolls, stir-fried green beans, minced pork and tofu chive soup, and apple for dessert; the 1:30 afternoon meal includes 720 servings of vermicelli soup with crab soup.

Ms. Pham Khanh Phong Lan - Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Department - said that this unit is investigating the cause.

"First, we determined that the children had fevers at the same time, not ruling out an outbreak of some kind, so we urgently reported it to the city health department for investigation. The incident could also have been caused by food poisoning, so food samples were tested, and we had to wait a while for the results," said Ms. Lan.

According to VNE