Philippines food poisoning cases spark calls for expert panel

Manila: Smarting from a recent rash of food poisoning outbreaks, Philippine officials have called on the government to form a team of experts that could be immediately sent to places struck by such emergencies.

“I think it is time to form quick reaction teams that can respond to food safety emergencies,” Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto said on Monday at the heels of reports of mass food poisoning in southern Philippines and other similar incidents in other parts of the country.

Also on Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that 1,925 people had been taken ill in Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte, and Agusan del Sur, after eating sweets made from the tropical fruit, durian.

According to Health Secretary Janette Guarin, 66 out of the 1,925 patients are still in various hospitals three days after the incident.

“The health department is closely coordinating with the hospitals in the areas affected in monitoring the affected patients. Samples from the candies were taken to Food and Drug Administration for further analysis. All hospitals were alerted in the region for possible admission of cases.” Garin said.

It was reported that the victims were rushed to the hospital after experiencing dizziness and vomiting. The patients either had bought or were given free candies from unknown vendors in different cities. The case is being coordinated with Philippine National Police to trace the possible source of the candies.

The incident was not the first time that a huge number of people had fallen ill after eating commercially available food.

Earlier this month, expired chocolates affected 36 Butuan City students while mushrooms bought from two town markets in northern Philippines’ Pangasinan were blamed for the hospitalisation of 17 people last June 26.

Also last month, 39 pupils and a teacher in Cauayan, Negros Occidental were taken to various hospitals due to alleged food poisoning after eating, a local version of the doughnut.

But the worst case of food poisoning occurred in 2005 where 30 schoolchildren in Mabini town in Central Philippines’ Bohol died after eating cassava fritters contaminated by pesticide.

Recto said similar incidents could be attended to much quicker, and probably save lives, if there is a special team of responders for such incidents.

Members of the team, he said, can be recruited from personnel of the Food and Drug Administration, National Epidemiology Centre, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and National Poison Control Centre, among others.

Recto said the proposed team could help local health officials trace the origins of an outbreak, do a rapid analysis, and recommend containment measures.

“The presence of alone of such a team will have a calming effect that prevents panic which usually follows disasters with still unexplained causes,” he said.