Rice sends 14 PUP students to hospital for food poisoning

Fourteen students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) Laboratory High School in Sta. Mesa, Manila, were rushed to a hospital on Wednesday after they came down with symptoms of food poisoning.

Following the incident, a school official said they would investigate the concessionaires at the school canteen to determine who should be held responsible.

“We’ll check the canteen and see the quality of the food [being sold]. We have concessionaires so we’ll see which one served the food,” PUP president Dante Guevarra told the Inquirer in a phone interview yesterday.

He did not, however, say if sanctions would be meted out against the errant concessionaire.

Victims feeling better

Guevarra added that the affected students were doing fine and that they were sent home after they received treatment for their complaints.

Reports reaching the Manila Police District’s Public Information Office showed that the high school students were eating lunch at the canteen between 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. when they started vomiting.

Alarmed, the canteen staff called the school doctor and nurse who examined the students.

They were later rushed to UERM Hospital in Quezon City for treatment, Insp. Cicero Magana Pura of the Sta. Mesa police station said in a report submitted to MPD acting director Senior Supt. Alex Gutierrez.

Hospital doctors told the police that the students complained of nausea and dizziness after they ate the fried rice being sold in the school canteen.

After treating their symptoms, the students’ condition improved and they were sent home after a few hours, Pura said in his report.