More than 40 students from the No.4 Middle School of Tongzi
County in southwest China's Guizhou
Province suffered after a food poisoning incident yesterday,
sources from the county education bureau announced the same
day.
Preliminary diagnoses by the local health department indicated
they had eaten contaminated food and were receiving treatment in
hospital, said the sources.
"Students were vomiting and falling sick one after another after
they attended the flag-raising ceremony this morning," said Yang
Chaojian, principal of the school.
The school authorities contacted the sanitation and epidemic
prevention department and rushed the sick students to a local
hospital. More than 90 were receiving treatment and over 40 have
developed evident symptoms of food poisoning.
The department said tainted polished glutinous rice was believed
to be the cause of the poisoning, and the school has closed all
five of its breakfast cafeterias.
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2005)