33 pupils in Pangasinan school ill after eating ‘isaw’ burgers

CALASIAO, PANGASINAN — Thirty-three grade school pupils here were taken to a hospital on Thursday for food poisoning after eating “isaw” burgers sold by an ambulant vendor outside their school.

Isaw is street food made from grilled chicken intestines.

Dr. Anna Maria Theresa de Guzman, provincial health officer, said 22 of the pupils aged 9 to 12 years old, were confined at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital in San Carlos City while the rest were sent home after treatment.

“They are now in stable condition,” De Guzman said in a text nessage to Inquirer on Friday.

She said the pupils, all from the Nalsian-Bacayao Elementary School,  complained of stomach ache and vomiting minutes after eating the burgers, which sold for P5 a piece in school.

The burger patty was a mixture of chicken intestines and chicken liver.  Police were still looking for the vendor, who had already left before the pupils fell sick. GAL/rga