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Eight more Strathmore students admitted over food poisoning


Eight more Strathmore University students were yesterday admitted to various hospitals in Nairobi for suspected food poisoning.

This brings the number of students who have been hospitalised to 33, and two staff members after eating a meal in the institution.

By the end of Wednesday, five students, three from Nairobi West Hospital and two from Nairobi Hospital, had been discharged.

The head of University Relations, Ms Betty Ngala, said the students were treated for rehydration due to severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

“After the story was highlighted, the students who were ailing at home were taken to hospital. A number are in Nairobi Hospital,” Ms Ngala said by telephone on Wednesday.

TRACES OF BACTERIA

The students were among about 300 others, most of them finalists, who were at a dinner in the university’s auditorium last Friday.

Ms Ngala said preliminary reports by Nairobi Hospital and shared with the university’s medical centre found traces of a bacteria—Salmonella— that causes food poisoning.

“They found a resistant strain of the bacteria, that meant that the treatment the students received was not working and doctors have changed their treatment. That explains the readmissions,” the head of realtions said.

She added that investigations of the cause of the food poisoning were at an advanced stage but was silent over who the outside caterer was.

Ms Ngala said: “We will get a conclusive report after the caterer gets results of the food samples from Kenya Agricultural Research Institute as we also receive findings from the hospitals the students are being treated.”

The university is expecting results, from Nairobi West Hospital, of stool and blood samples.