Students stricken by ‘food poisoning’ in Sudan’s Sennar

All school and student canteens in Sudan’s Sennar have been shut by order of the state’s Wali (governor) after at least 121 university and basic school students were stricken by suspected food poisoning on Monday and Tuesday.

Following the outbreak, which ascertained that the students had all eaten at school or university canteens, the Wali ordered that all canteens be shut, and all food, plates and utensils confiscated. He also ordered an immediate investigation into the cause of the poisoning.

Sennar state Minister of Health, Alamedin Mustapha, confirmed that samples of the confiscated food from the canteens have been sent to medical laboratories for testing, to ascertain the exact source of the poisoning.

Minister Mustapha confirmed that all of the students concerned “have been treated and are stable”.

121 victims

On Wednesday, the Central Doctors Committee of Sennar said in a statement that Sennar Teaching Hospital received 17 students of Badei Abu Sholoukh Basic School with suspected poisoning on Monday and Tuesday, 38 students of Sennar University on Monday, four cases from the Mairno Complex and 62 more cases from Sennar University on Tuesday.

The doctors confirmed that all 121 patients have since been discharged from hospital after treatment.

Camel milk

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, hospitals in Port Sudan were overwhelmed with more than 100 people suffering from suspected food poisoning on Monday,

The people reportedly got sick after drinking camel milk in Port Sudan and Suakin.

A journalist Osman Hashim told Radio Dabanga that the Port Sudan Teaching Hospital received more than 40 cases including children from the neighbourhoods of Dim Arab and Shahinaat. In Suakin, he confirmed that the number of cases of food poisoning were roughly 60 cases. There have been no reports of fatalities.

Health sources attributed the cases to the storage of camel milk, which is widely consumed in the in Red Sea state, at home during the winter season.

Decaying digs

Last week, students of the University of Sennar in Singa took to the streets in protest after a student was injured when a bunk bed she was sleeping on in a dormitory collapsed.

The students demanded the dissolution of the Student Support and Welfare Fund, and the return of housing and subsistence to the university administration.

Students from the university told Radio Dabanga that the services of the dormitories deteriorated because of the negligence of the current administration.

They reported that the student was injured on Wednesday, because the bunk bed she was sleeping on collapsed due to decay. She had to be transferred to a hospital in Wad Madani for treatment.

They pointed to their demands to dismiss the current administration of the fund and the return of the Fund to the administration of the university.

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