Pupils poisoned after eating sweets

August 16 2011 at 02:28pm 

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EMS spokeswoman Keri Davids said the children had complained of cramps and sore stomachs.

Twenty Grade 5 children from the Strand have fallen ill after eating sweets brought to the school by a classmate.

ACJ Phakade Primary School principal Vuyisile Cenga said the children fell ill after 9am on Monday.

EMS spokeswoman Keri Davids said they had complained of cramps and sore stomachs.

The children were assessed and their condition was found not to be serious, she said, although they were taken to the Ikhwezi Clinic to be properly examined as a precaution.

Cenga said all the children were taken back to school and attended classes for the rest of the afternoon.

This is the third such incident this year involving schoolchildren.

At the end of last month, 48 children from Silukhanyo Primary School in Lwandle fell ill after eating chocolates, believed to have expired in June last year. A pupil sold them to her classmates.

Teachers called an ambulance after the pupils, aged 13 and 14,

began complaining of nausea, headaches, vomiting and diarrhoea. The children were treated at the Helderberg Hospital and Ikhwezi Clinic.

In May, 600 children fell ill at the Trevor Manuel Primary School in Fisantekraal, near Durbanville, after eating expired caffeinated chewing gum. Pupils had collected the dumped gum on a farm in the area, then sold it to classmates and residents at 50c a pack.

Children complained of severe stomach pains.

In January this year, 151 Lwandle residents fell ill after expired food was dumped in the area. The food had expired between 2007 and 2009. Residents took it and distributed it in the community.

On that occasion, people flooded the Helderberg Hospital complaining of dehydration, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps and dizziness. – Staff Reporter