14 students in Trinidad fall ill after school barbecue

(Trinidad Guardian) Some 14 stu­dents of the San Fer­nan­do AS­JA Girls’ High School were tak­en to hos­pi­tal af­ter they fell ill fol­low­ing the school’s an­nu­al fund-rais­ing bar­be­cue on Friday.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the school’s par­ent as­so­ci­a­tion, the Par­ent En­hance­ment As­so­ci­a­tion (PEA), held their an­nu­al event yes­ter­day where an es­ti­mat­ed 800 tick­ets were sold. The stu­dents be­came ill af­ter eat­ing the meal.

School of­fi­cials told Guardian Me­dia both the Emer­gency Health Ser­vices (EHS) and par­ents of the stu­dents were im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed as a pre­cau­tion and the ail­ing stu­dents were tak­en to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment.

Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cials told Guardian Me­dia that they were aware of the sit­u­a­tion and that the school fol­lowed prop­er pro­to­col.

The of­fi­cial said that while the stu­dents were tak­en to the hos­pi­tal, none were ad­mit­ted. They said the stu­dents were cleared of any poi­son­ing by doc­tors, how­ev­er, two were kept for ob­ser­va­tion and re­ceived in­tra­venous liq­uids for any de­hy­dra­tion brought about by their symp­toms as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure.

The of­fi­cial said this again, was keep­ing with­in pro­to­col.

One par­ent said her daugh­ters con­sumed the same food and did not ex­pe­ri­ence any symp­toms. She said the sit­u­a­tion was be­ing blown out of pro­por­tion and com­mend­ed the school’s prin­ci­pal and teach­ers for their swift ac­tion in deal­ing with the mat­ter.