Food program for kids in doubt after 250 poisoned

LEGAZPI CITY—A feeding program for poor children that the municipal government of Jose Panganiban in Camarines Norte province holds every year has been cast in a cloud of doubt after more than 250 children who took part in the program’s latest episode this month were taken ill, believed to be victims of food poisoning.

The municipal government holds the feeding program in March every year.

More than 250 children, who ate food distributed during the program on Sunday, were brought to different hospitals after showing symptoms of food poisoning, a health official said on Monday.

The children are believed to have eaten spoiled spaghetti, according to Patrick Reyes, administrative assistant of the Camarines Norte provincial health office.

The children, whose ages ranged from 6 to 13 years old, complained of abdominal cramps, weakness and nausea and experienced vomiting and diarrhea, said Reyes.

Reyes said the children were taken to the Jose Panganiban Hospital (JPH) in the town, Labo District Hospital in Labo town and Camarines Norte Provincial Hospital in Daet town.

He said the children, who came from three villages, had taken part in the yearly feeding program that the Jose Panganiban local government started to conduct every March three years ago.

As of 10 a.m. on Monday, Reyes said 267 children were either confined or treated for food poisoning in different hospitals in the province, 144 of them admitted to the JPH.

He did not say how many children remained in hospitals on Monday.

Reyes, quoting a report, said spaghetti was served during the feeding program that started at lunch and ended at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Local health officials expressed suspicion that the pasta used for the spaghetti, which was served in Styrofoam containers, was spoiled.

Reyes said other children took the food home. Mar S. Arguelles, Inquirer Southern Luzon