Investigation into food poisoning after Mid-Autumn Festival party

Medical news September 18: Investigation into food poisoning after Mid-Autumn Festival party

The Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health has just issued a document directing the Ha Giang Department of Health to investigate and handle the suspected food poisoning case at the Xin Man District Boarding Secondary and High School for Ethnic Minorities.

Investigate and handle food poisoning case after eating Mid-Autumn Festival party

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Previously, on the evening of September 15, at Xin Man District Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, a group of 300 middle school students organized a Mid-Autumn Festival. About 15 minutes after eating, some students felt nauseous, weak in the limbs, dizzy, had headaches, and had stomachaches. Afterwards, 55 students were taken to Xin Man District General Hospital for examination with a diagnosis of suspected food poisoning.

As of September 17, of the 55 students hospitalized, 29 showed signs of poisoning, 17 students were discharged from the hospital and continued to be monitored at school, while the rest suffered from digestive disorders.

Faced with the above situation, the Food Safety Department requested the Ha Giang Provincial Department of Health to urgently direct the temporary suspension of operations of food suppliers suspected of causing food poisoning.

Organize investigation and trace the origin of food to clearly identify the source of raw materials and food for processing facilities suspected of causing poisoning; take food samples and specimens for testing to find the cause;

From there, detect and strictly handle violations of food safety regulations (if any) and publicize the results to promptly warn the community.

At the same time, strengthen propaganda and guidance for collective kitchens and food service establishments to ensure hygiene and food safety conditions, strictly implement the management of food ingredients' origin, three-step food inspection, food sample storage and hygiene in processing stages.

Initial information from the Food Safety Department of Ha Giang province said that dinner at the Xin Man District Boarding Secondary and High School for Ethnic Minorities for students included: white rice, fried eggs, roasted peanuts and pumpkin soup.

After the main meal, at 7:30 p.m., the school organized a Mid-Autumn Festival in the classrooms for students from grades 6 to 9 (about 300 students), with food including: candy, chips, rice cakes, jelly, and lemon tea smoothies.

Regarding food safety and prevention of collective food poisoning, the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health has just issued Document No. 5411/BYT-ATTP to the Department of Health of provinces/cities under the Central Government; Department of Food Safety of Ho Chi Minh City; Food Safety Management Board of Da Nang City, Bac Ninh Province on strengthening the work of preventing and combating food poisoning.

According to the Ministry of Health, in recent times, the work of preventing and combating food poisoning has achieved certain results, but there are still many risks of food poisoning, especially in collective kitchens of industrial parks, export processing zones, schools... with a scale of thousands of meals.

In order to minimize the risk of food poisoning in the above-mentioned collective kitchens, the Ministry of Health requests the Department of Health of the provinces/cities under the Central Government, the Department of Food Safety of Ho Chi Minh City, the Food Safety Management Board of Da Nang City, and Bac Ninh Province to coordinate with relevant authorities to strengthen training and dissemination of legal regulations on ensuring food safety and preventing food poisoning in collective kitchens of industrial parks, export processing zones, schools, etc.

Organize drills and prepare plans for handling, overcoming consequences, first aid, transportation, and emergency care for patients as well as strengthen coordination between functional agencies when food safety incidents or food poisoning occur at organizations and businesses using collective kitchens.

Guide organizations and businesses with collective kitchens in the area to develop plans to prevent and handle food safety incidents and food poisoning, and organize their own drills for mass food poisoning situations at the facility.

Hanoi: Focus on environmental treatment, disease prevention and control after storms and floods

The Hanoi Department of Health continues to direct medical units in the entire sector to focus on overcoming the consequences of storm No. 3 and post-storm floods, especially strengthening measures to prevent and control epidemics and environmental sanitation, and stabilizing people's lives.

According to the quick report of the Department of Health on medical response work during the 2024 flood season, due to the impact of storm No. 3 with very strong intensity, the whole city has 27 districts/counties, 184 communes/wards, and 449 flooded areas.

With the motto of "wherever the water goes, the environment will be treated", the Hanoi health sector has directed the concentration of resources on environmental sanitation work.

As of the afternoon of September 15, there were still 15 districts, 101 communes, and 302 flooded areas in the city. The total number of flooded households was 39,116, 13,540 households were still flooded, and nearly 24,000 households had their environment treated. In addition, the city had 52 flooded garbage dumps, of which 36 had been treated.

Regarding the distribution of medicine and disinfectant chemicals, medical centers have provided 5,450 kg of Cloramin B, 620 kg of lime powder, and 30.4 kg of alum for water and environmental treatment.

Flooding situation at medical facilities, as of the afternoon of September 15, 5 medical stations: My Luong and Nam Phuong Tien A (Chuong My District Medical Center), Ngo Quyen Medical Station (Son Tay Medical Center), Phu Luu and Hong Quang Medical Stations (Ung Hoa Medical Center) were still flooded.

Flooded stations were relocated to temporary locations to ensure the safety of human resources, assets, equipment, medicine, etc. to continue providing medical examination and treatment and health care for local people.

Regarding the epidemic and disease situation in the flooded area, it is reported that there are 508 patients with skin diseases, 42 cases of digestive diseases, 117 cases of eye diseases, and 1 case of dengue fever.

Units have proactively distributed disease prevention medicines including intestinal antibiotics, topical medicines, digestive enzymes, and eye drops to people in flooded areas such as Quoc Oai district with 21 types of medicines, Soc Son district with 9 types of medicines, and Chuong My district with 13 types of medicines.

At medical facilities, ensure good medical examination and treatment activities in the area. Organize 24/7 medical examination and treatment, do not interrupt medical examination and treatment work.

In the coming time, the Department of Health will continue to direct city-level hospitals, non-public hospitals and local hospitals, and the private health system to be ready to participate in rescue, receive and deploy support tasks when requested by superiors.

Continue to carry out general environmental sanitation activities when the water recedes, following the principle of cleaning the environment as the water recedes, organizing the collection and disposal of animal carcasses that carry infectious diseases, and spraying chemicals to kill disease-carrying insects in high-risk areas.

Strengthening propaganda and guidance for patients and people in the community on clean water, food safety and hygiene, environmental sanitation, disease prevention and control that often appear after the rainy season, floods, and injury prevention in many forms (direct communication at flooded households, leaflet distribution, daily radio broadcasts, etc.)

90% of lung cancer patients are related to smoking

Having a history of smoking for 20 years, Mr. Pham Van Manh (68 years old, Hanoi) recently had a persistent cough. He took medicine but it did not go away. Mr. Manh went to the K Hospital for examination. After an X-ray showed a blurry spot in his lungs, the doctor ordered him to have a chest CT scan and discovered stage 2 lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer, the most difficult to detect and the least effective treatment, causing the most deaths today. According to statistics from Globocan (International Agency for Research on Cancer) in 2022, Vietnam has a high rate of lung cancer, ranking 2nd in men with 17.8%, and 2nd in the country with 7.8% among common cancers.

According to the Ministry of Health, 90% of lung cancer patients are related to smoking. Cigarette smoke causes about 25 diseases, including many dangerous diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and affects reproductive health.

In addition to lung cancer, smoking causes 75% of cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 25% of cases of ischemic heart disease. In children, exposure to tobacco smoke increases the risk of respiratory infections, otitis media, asthma, and impaired lung function.

The results of many studies show that the risk of lung cancer in people who smoke is 10 times higher than that of non-smokers. The level of increased risk depends on the type of cancer cells.

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in men, with a mortality rate of about 20% of all cancers. According to statistics, lung cancer ranks second in new cases and is the leading cause of death.

In Vietnam alone in 2020, the incidence of lung cancer ranked second with more than 26,000 new cases and more than 23,000 deaths from this dangerous disease.

According to respiratory experts, people should proactively screen for lung cancer when they have one of the following unusual signs: frequent coughing, persistent coughing with phlegm, fatigue, shortness of breath, unexplained weight loss, etc. In particular, people with a history of smoking are recommended to have regular lung cancer screening after the age of 40.

When screening for lung cancer, people will usually be assigned one of the following tests and imaging techniques: Low-dose chest computed tomography, also known as low-dose chest CT scan;

Chest X-ray; Sputum cytology. In addition, to confirm the diagnosis and assess the level of local invasion or metastasis, the patient will undergo specialized techniques such as chest CT scan, PET/CT scan, bronchoscopy, bronchial ultrasound, endoscopic bronchial ultrasound, MRI (brain, chest), lung biopsy.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tin-moi-y-te-ngay-189-dieu-tra-vu-ngo-doc-thuc-pham-sau-an-tiec-trung-thu-d225213.html