Report

An eight-year-old girl died late Monday night, just hours after she and 34 other students from a government-funded residential school in Bijapur district, Chhattisgarh, were hospitalized due to suspected food poisoning. Early Monday morning, students at Rukhmini Ashram School in Dhanora village reported stomach aches and nausea. By morning, 35 students were taken to a local health centre and later referred to the Bijapur district hospital.

Doctors at the district hospital managed vomiting in several students after their arrival around 11 a.m. However, Shivani Telam, one of the students, was transferred to another hospital in Jagdalpur, Bastar district, about 286 km away, at approximately 10 p.m. Tragically, Shivani passed away around midnight while en route in an ambulance.

Authorities Await Postmortem Report for Clarity

Bijapur Collector Sambit Mishra told The Indian Express, “We are awaiting the postmortem report to determine the exact cause of death. Necessary measures will be taken accordingly.”A district hospital physician noted that the cause of the illness was still under investigation. “We could only collect rice samples from the food consumed by the children,” the doctor said. On Sunday, the students had kheer, puri, chana, and chole for meals, along with paneer in the evening, which might have been spoiled. “Many children also exhibited fever symptoms, leading us to test for malaria, but the results were negative,” the physician added.

District Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr. B. R. Pujari stated, “This may extend beyond food poisoning. We couldn’t obtain adequate food samples, but we are determined to find the cause. “The school, Rukhmini Ashram, has a total enrollment of 88 students.

Source: The Indian Express