Several students of Ikonge PAG Girls Secondary School in Nyamira North Sub-county were yesterday morning admitted at Ekerenyo Sub-county and Mogumo private hospitals after allegedly taking contaminated water and food.
The girls were rushed to the health facilities after developing severe stomach and lower abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhoea moments after taking breakfast.
Nyamira County Executive Committee (CEC) member in charge of Health Timothy Ombati who led a team of medical officers to the health facilities confirmed that 90 students were admitted at Ekerenyo sub-county hospital while 48 were admitted at Omogumo, a private facility.
He said the students were out of danger, adding that five whose condition failed to improve were referred to Nyamira county referral hospital.
I want to assure the parents and relatives of the affected girls wherever they are that their daughters are in stable condition,” Dr Ombati told journalists at Ekerenyo sub-county hospital.
“Three to five students have not responded well to the stabilisation done on them and as a result, we have referred them to the county referral hospital for further medication,’ he added.
Ombati said they had not yet established the cause of the ailment but confirmed that the students were exhibiting symptoms that could be linked to consuming contaminated food or water.
Team of health experts have already been dispatched to the school which is at Ikonge Township in Nyamira North to do an audit of the situation.
Culture samples
“Majority of the learners who were admitted to the hospital are now stable and we shall release most of them later in the day as we do a review of the culture samples that we took from them. But so far, only a few of them may be retained for extended treatment,” he said.
Nyamira North sub-county Director of Education Claire Oyula led a team of education officers to the two health facilities to assess the condition of the students who were admitted there.
According to Oyula, the matter was reported to them yesterday morning, but it was later established that some learners had started experiencing pain as early as Tuesday evening.
Oyula thanked the medics at Ekerenyo and Mogumo health facilities for their quick response to the situation.
The girls who talked to journalists said all the learners who were affected had been served porridge for breakfast yesterday morning and started experiencing the symptoms immediately.
“Serving of the porridge stopped after complaints started and all those who had not been served never suffered any pain,” one student revealed.
Parents of the affected students and their relatives rushed to the two health facilities after word went round that hundreds of learners had been rushed there.
