Six hospitalised after drinking tainted milk

Doctors say the family are in critical condition.

FAISALABAD:

Six members of a family were taken to Allied Hospital on Friday when they fainted after drinking milk.

Doctors treating them said that they were in critical condition.

Rescue 1122 officials were told that Muhammad Afzal, a resident of Chak 203-RB in Malikpur, had purchased the milk from a shop early morning.

A few minutes after drinking it, they said, Afzal and his children Sidra, 15, Noor Fatima, 8, Muazzma, 6, Ghulam Ali, 11, and Zain Ali, 4, started throwing up.

Afzal managed to inform some neighbours using telephone.

They were taken to Allied Hospital, where they were reported to be in critical condition.

Dr Fareed Ahmad, the duty doctor at the emergency ward, told The Express Tribune that all of them had had a stomach wash. He said it was too early to comment on their chances. He said their blood samples had been sent to the hospital laboratory to find out whether or not they had been poisoned.

Ahmad Din, one of Afzal’s next door neighbours, said he had been on the roof of his house when he saw Afzal carrying one of his children inside from the verandah where they were having breakfast. He said at first he didn’t notice, but later rushed to his house on hearing them shout for help.

“When some of us (neighbours) went in, Afzal and his children were vomiting. Two of the children had fainted,” he said.

He said they then informed Rescue 1122 and the family were taken to the hospital.

Later, residents of the area protested against the district government and food authorities for not keeping a check on sale of sub-standard and unhygienic edibles.

The protesters said that food officials sent false reports of market surveys to their seniors. They said disciplinary action should be taken against Food Department officials, who were assigned the duty to survey markets in this regard.

One of the protesters said that teams that raided markets to check food quality were regularly bribed by the shopkeepers and so they were never reported.

They requested senior officials to take notice of the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2013.