The South is in hot season, how to avoid food poisoning?

Tram Anh chicken rice restaurant was suspended to investigate the cause of mass poisoning - Photo: MINH CHIEN

Recently, a series of diners were poisoned after eating at Tram Anh chicken rice restaurant, Nha Trang city (Khanh Hoa), the number of poisoned patients hospitalized for examination and treatment was 368 people.

Favorable environment for bacteria to multiply rapidly

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety said that prolonged hot weather is a favorable environment for bacteria to grow and develop, leading to unsafe food hygiene and possibly food poisoning.

Food spoils quickly if not stored properly. Many people have the habit of handling food, cooking it incorrectly, storing it incorrectly, and leaving food at room temperature for too long.

In addition, buying unsanitary street food and food sold without proper preservation can also cause food poisoning.

Doctor Truong Thi Ngoc Phu (Children's Hospital 2, Ho Chi Minh City) said that hot weather and high temperatures are favorable times for outbreaks of some infectious diseases transmitted through the digestive tract (diarrhea, food poisoning), heatstroke, sunstroke (heat shock), and skin diseases.

In these groups of diseases, heat stroke and infectious diseases transmitted through the digestive tract have the risk of becoming severe and dangerous for children.

What to do to prevent food poisoning?

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety, to ensure people's health and prevent food poisoning, we should choose safe food, vegetables must be fresh, raw fruits must be soaked, washed thoroughly with clean water, peeled before eating. Boil water when making ice to drink.

In particular, cook food thoroughly to ensure that the internal temperature of the food reaches above 70°C. Eat immediately after cooking, because if left for too long, food will be more susceptible to bacteria that are harmful to health.

Note to carefully preserve cooked food, if you want to keep food for more than 5 hours, it must be kept continuously hot above 60°C or cold below 10°C, food for children should not be reused. In case cooked food is reused after 5 hours, it must be thoroughly cooked again.

In addition, during storage, cross-contamination between cooked and raw foods must be avoided. Cooked foods can become contaminated with pathogens through direct contact with raw foods or indirectly with dirty surfaces, so any surface used to prepare food must be kept clean.

Dishcloths should be boiled and changed frequently before reusing.

Pay attention to covering food to avoid insects and other animals such as keeping food in sealed containers, cupboards, glass cabinets, cages... During the processing, pay attention to washing your hands before cooking and before eating. If you have a wound on your hand, bandage it carefully and cover the wound before processing.

Parents should take their child to a medical facility immediately if they have one of the following signs: the child is not alert, lethargic, cannot drink, refuses to breastfeed, has no urine for 6-8 hours, cries without tears, has dry skin/lips, sunken eyes, has diarrhea for more than 2 days without improvement; diarrhea with fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, bloody stools...

What causes mass poisoning after eating chicken rice?

Poisoning patients are treated at Yersin General Hospital Nha Trang - Photo: MINH CHIEN

Regarding the mass poisoning after eating at Tram Anh chicken rice restaurant, Nha Trang city (Khanh Hoa), according to the report of Khanh Hoa Department of Health, as of 3:00 p.m. on March 19, the total number of poisoning cases received by medical facilities was 368, the number of cases currently being treated was 26, the number of discharged cases was 225, the number of cases prescribed for outpatient monitoring was 118. Stable cases will continue to be discharged from the hospital and treated at home.

Nha Trang Pasteur Institute has the results of the cause of the chicken rice poisoning incident. Accordingly, through a 5-day testing process on 19 food samples, water samples, medical samples and samples from the hands of a female employee, the test results showed that: the fried onion sample was positive for Salmonella bacteria, the vegetables (pickles) were positive for Bacillus bacteria.

Samples of chicken rice taken from households, including rice with egg sauce and shredded chicken, tested positive for Salmonella and Bacillus bacteria that produce toxins NHE (non-hemolytic enterotoxin) and BHL (hemolytic enterotoxin).

The sample taken from the female employee's hand was BL positive for Staphyloccocus bacteria. The specimen (stool sample) of patient HCH (54 years old) was positive for Salmonella bacteria.

In addition, Nha Trang Pasteur Institute also detected some Escherichia coli, Coliform and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria in tap water samples from the processing area and in well water samples taken from the well water tank used to wash utensils.

Khanh Hoa Province Food Safety and Hygiene Department determined that this was a case of food poisoning caused by microorganisms (bacteria: Salmonella spp, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus); the cause of the food poisoning was Tram Anh chicken rice restaurant; the meals were lunch and afternoon meals on March 11 and 12.

How to give first aid to people with food poisoning?

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety recommends that people with food poisoning should induce vomiting to limit the toxins from entering the body. The first first aid measure should be to stimulate the poisoned person to vomit the food in the stomach.

Note: When inducing vomiting in a conscious patient, the patient should lie on their side with their head slightly elevated so that vomited waste does not flow back into the lungs and cause choking.

For patients with food poisoning who are in a coma, do not induce vomiting because it can easily cause choking and suffocation.

After vomiting and diarrhea, the patient's body will become dehydrated. Therefore, it is necessary to rehydrate the patient by giving them plenty of filtered water and oral rehydration solution (ORS).

After initial first aid, the patient may still be in danger at any time. Therefore, it is necessary to take the patient to the nearest medical facility or call 115 emergency.

Immediately after that, keep and refrigerate food suspected of causing food poisoning to send samples for testing to find the cause. Do not use food suspected of causing poisoning and warn those around you, immediately report to the authorities.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nam-bo-dang-mua-nong-lam-sao-tranh-ngo-doc-thuc-pham-20240319225600604.htm