Friday, April 14, 2023 –It has emerged that the Mukumu Girls School deaths were caused by food contaminated with faeces.
Doctors who have been examining the food in a state laboratory have come up with a conclusion that the food the students and some teachers ate at the institution was contaminated with human wastes.
Ministry of Health led by Director General of health, Patrick Amoth, has today, Friday April 14, made official findings public.
“The Ministry wishes to inform the general public that this disease is likely to be a mixture of E. coli and Salmonella typhi which usually occurs if water sources are contaminated with these micro-organisms,” he said.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms that can cause food poisoning.
Furthermore, Salmonella enterica typhi is a gram-negative bacterium that comes around with fever.
Despite public claims, more laboratory findings established that the grains and pulses for aflatoxin turned negative for aflatoxicosis.
“Laboratory tests for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs) including Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), Marburg Virus Disease (MVD), Leptospirosis and Crimean- Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), Dengue Fever, Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and West Nile Virus have all turned negative,” Patrick Amoth said.
He said comprehensive investigations are ongoing but data analysed so far indicated that the disease seems to have started on March 1, 2023.
Its main symptoms and effects include fever, abdominal pain/cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea.