Post date: Apr 30, 2012 10:31:49 PM
ACAPULCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO (APRIL 30, 2012)(REUTERS) - Almost 300 people, including 285 children and 14 adults, were hospitalised on Saturday (April 28) due to food poisoning, Guerrero state's Health Secretariat said on Monday (April 30).
Almost 300 children fall ill with food poisoning after eating something rotten at a children's day party in Acapulco.
Juan Carlos Hernandez Luna, the Director of Donato G. Alarcon hospital in Acapulco, said that 137 people are being treated in his hospital as of Monday, but they were all showing improvements in their condition.
"We are currently treating 137 patients that have been poisoned by some food. We are treating them in two areas. One area is paediatric emergencies, and the other is an area that is adequate for them. With regards to their treatment, all of them have progressed satisfactorily. At this time, the paediatric service, with its team of paediatricians, are visiting all the children and are not reporting any serious cases," he said.
Patients were also taken to several other local hospitals.
Pedro Campos, the uncle of one of the poisoned children, said that he hoped that all the sick - most of them neighbours - recover so they can go on with their lives.
"One of them, the youngest, was taken to therapy because his intestines are a bit fragile. That's what worries us more than anything else. We want him to receive the most adequate treatment so they can go forward. I hope that for everyone, because we are all neighbours," he said.
On Sunday, some of the children were visited by the state's Secretary of Education, Silvia Romero Suarez.
The patients were all attending a Children's Day celebration on Friday, where they are thought to have eaten spoiled food, but the specific food source is unclear. The case remains under investigation.
Among the symptoms exhibited by the patients were diarrhea, abdominal pains and headaches.