Food poisoning hits 400 children
HANOI - Four hundred primary school children were taken to hospital with food poisoning in southern Vietnam after drinking
milk and eating biscuits provided by their schools, officials said today.
The children, from three schools in the Tan Hong district of Dong Thap province, were taken to a local health centre for
treatment yesterday after complaining of stomach aches and nausea. The milk and biscuits were provided to 22 schools in the
district by two Vietnamese companies as part of a US-funded school nutritional programme, local education officials said. The
children were kept at the centre overnight and released this morning. Provincial health authorities said they were trying to trace
the source of the contamination.
Food poisoning outbreaks are increasingly common in Vietnam, particularly in the south where year-round humidity and
inadequate cold storage facilities often provide fertile breeding grounds for bacteria.
Agence France Presse - November 6, 2003
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