A total of 96 college students were admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Nagpur after reporting food poisoning symptoms in the wee hours of Wednesday. They had mild symptoms of food poisoning . The AIIMS Nagpur doctors treated them and they were discharged on Wednesday afternoon. Of the 96 students, four who were asymptomatic were examined and asked to go home.

 

According to sources in AIIMS, the students started vomiting soon after having dinner. Some of them complained about loose motion. As for dinner, they had daal, rice, chapati and vegetable. The college administration, taking serious cognisance of the development, immediately rushed the students to AIIMS Nagpur. Most hospitals in city are not prepared to handle such emergencies. But AIIMS Nagpur has special disaster response team whose members swung into action the moment the students were rushed in. The preliminary findings pointed to the consumption of contaminated daal as the likely source of the food poisoning. Usually, food infection is caused due to contaminated water, so daal may be the source, the souces said. No additional details about the investigation or outcomes are available in the public domain. According to doctors in AIIMS, a specific reason can not be given for the food infection, but the four students who did not eat daal, were asymptomatic.

 

All the other 92 students had consumed daal. With this particular observation, doctors at AIIMS feel that the source of infection might be the daal. Food poisoning is caused by bacteria, viruses or toxins in the food consumed. Symptoms of food poisoning range from mild to very severe. The students who were admitted to AIIMS had mild symptoms, which, on several occasions, don’t need medical attention. But, the college whose students suffered the problem did not want to leave any stone unturned and ensured that their pupils reached home safely. As a precautionary measure, AIIMS kept two students a little longer considering the severity of the food poisoning in them.