More than 100 fall ill with food poisoning amid flooding near Myanmar capital

An outbreak of foodborne illness erupted on Tuesday evening in a village in the Naypyitaw Union Territory’s Tatkon Township, affecting both residents and rescue volunteers visiting to help respond to the ongoing floods. People began to experience the symptoms of the illness, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea, at around 4pm on Tuesday after eating biryanis and curries that had been donated for the rescue workers and locals displaced from their homes. Children and elderly people were among those affected. A man helping to transport the patients said they were taken to various medical facilities for treatment, including the township’s 100-bed hospital. “After eating the biryani, they all started vomiting. We started driving people to the 100-bed hospital right away, and now they’ve started coming back after taking some time to recover,” he said on Wednesday. A healthcare worker in Tatkon Township said more than 100 people had been brought for treatment, with 60 admitted to the 100-bed hospital alone and over 50 taken to the Naypyitaw Children’s Hospital as well as various clinics and Buddhist monasteries. Confirming that the illness appeared to be foodborne and brought on by eating biryani, he said, “We'll know the exact cause after completing the laboratory tests of the food.” Chaung Char village is around seven miles from Tatkon Township hospital by road. Waves of patients continued to arrive at the hospitals all evening, straining the facilities’ capacity and forcing the doctors and other staff on duty to work past midnight, the healthcare worker said. He emphasised that the illness was not life-threatening, appearing to be an acute foodborne illness that would pass quickly. The military council issued an advisory through its ministry of information about the outbreak, saying it seemed to have resulted from the patients’ consuming donated biryani, chicken and potato curry, or tomato curry with duck eggs on Tuesday afternoon. 50 outpatients and 65 inpatients were recuperating after receiving treatment, according to the military council’s statement. Food poisoning patients at a care facility in Tatkon Township. (Photo: SAC Ministry of Information) The healthcare worker from Tatkon Township said there might be a need for new medicines due to the possibility that the flooding could leave contaminants in drinking water sources, causing outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnesses. Referring to the Tatkon Township food poisoning outbreak, a man involved in charity work in Pyinmana Township—which has been even more severely impacted by floods—advised strict caution to avoid the unhygienic preparation or storage of donated perishable foods. “There are cases of food being cooked and donated from distant parts of the country, so the food has spoiled after several days. Donors should be careful about this,” he said. In Tatkon Township, the bodies of 45 victims have been recovered after the recent flooding, but many victims known or believed to have been killed have yet to be found, according to a local man who is assisting with the emergency response and keeping a count of the dead and missing. Heavy rains began on September 9 as a result of Typhoon Yagi, causing widespread flooding in various parts of the country. According to the military council’s figures, there have been 226 deaths with 77 people missing and over 400,000 displaced from their homes since the floods began.

More than 100 fall ill with food poisoning amid flooding near Myanmar capital

After eating tainted food received from donors, more than 100 patients had been admitted to medical and care facilities in the Naypyitaw Union Territory from an area impacted by the recent floods, a healthcare worker said

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