Thirty-four villagers in Dutywa had to be rushed to hospital after eating the meat of a dead cow on Friday.
The Gxarha villagers were treated at a Dutywa health centre for food poisoning.
“They were vomiting and some had stomach cramps and headaches,” provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said yesterday. The villagers were all later discharged from the centre.
This was the third food poisoning incident reported in different parts of the Eastern Cape in the last three weeks and Kupelo repeated his urgent warning for people to be more vigilant about what they ate.
In one incident, late last month, a 64-year-old man died in Holy Cross Hospital in Flagstaff after he fell ill from eating meat. He was among 115 people from Flagstaff who had eaten meat from a cow and had to be treated for food poisoning.
Earlier this month, the Daily Dispatch reported that two teenage boys were in a critical condition at the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital’s intensive care unit after drinking sour milk.
The duo, along with four other boys from Peddie Extension, were hospitalised after eating a dish of uumvubo – crumbly pap and sour milk.
It was later reported that all six teenagers had organophosphate in their systems. They have since been discharged from hospital.
Kupelo told the Dispatch yesterday the department was running educational awareness campaigns geared towards sensitising communities on the need to be clear about what had killed an animal before eating it, and to look at “sell by” and “best before” dates.
“If an animal happens to be sick and dies , people must not eat that meat,” he said. “When an animal dies mysteriously people should burn it or just bury it,” he added.
The spokesman also urged consumers to check for expiry dates on foodstuffs before buying them.
Contacted for comment, Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders chairman Nkosi Ngangomhlaba Matanzima said he was baffled as to why people continued eating animals when they didn’t know what had killed them.
“Some traditional leaders warn people to stop this practice. Government has been saying the same thing.” — sikhon@dispatch.co.za
Food poisoning puts 34 in hospital
The Gxarha villagers were treated at a Dutywa health centre for food poisoning.
“They were vomiting and some had stomach cramps and headaches,” provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said yesterday. The villagers were all later discharged from the centre.
This was the third food poisoning incident reported in different parts of the Eastern Cape in the last three weeks and Kupelo repeated his urgent warning for people to be more vigilant about what they ate.
In one incident, late last month, a 64-year-old man died in Holy Cross Hospital in Flagstaff after he fell ill from eating meat. He was among 115 people from Flagstaff who had eaten meat from a cow and had to be treated for food poisoning.
Earlier this month, the Daily Dispatch reported that two teenage boys were in a critical condition at the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital’s intensive care unit after drinking sour milk.
The duo, along with four other boys from Peddie Extension, were hospitalised after eating a dish of uumvubo – crumbly pap and sour milk.
It was later reported that all six teenagers had organophosphate in their systems. They have since been discharged from hospital.
Kupelo told the Dispatch yesterday the department was running educational awareness campaigns geared towards sensitising communities on the need to be clear about what had killed an animal before eating it, and to look at “sell by” and “best before” dates.
“If an animal happens to be sick and dies , people must not eat that meat,” he said. “When an animal dies mysteriously people should burn it or just bury it,” he added.
The spokesman also urged consumers to check for expiry dates on foodstuffs before buying them.
Contacted for comment, Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders chairman Nkosi Ngangomhlaba Matanzima said he was baffled as to why people continued eating animals when they didn’t know what had killed them.
“Some traditional leaders warn people to stop this practice. Government has been saying the same thing.” — sikhon@dispatch.co.za
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