16 nursing students fall sick in Mangaluru hostel

MANGALURU: About 16 girl students housed in a private nursing college hostel have fallen sick in the last two days. The district health and family welfare department is closely monitoring the health of the students.
DHO Dr Kishore Kumar, who visited the campus along with District surveillance officer Dr Jagadeesh, told TOI that about 16 out of 115 students complained of mild diarrhoea, vomiting, and abdominal pain in the last two days. The students were treated as outpatients at the hospital and sent back to the hostel. Only four students were given IV fluids, he said
Meanwhile, a team of doctors from the local PHC visited the campus and collected the water and food samples. The exact reason behind the students falling sick is yet to be ascertained, DHO said. No fresh cases were reported on Monday and the students are stable. The doctors also observed that students panicked.
The district health team are visiting various hostels run by the government and also private colleges, including those para medical colleges, medical colleges for the last three months, to check on the water source, quality of food supplied, the area where food is stored and prepared, to ensure that cleanliness, hygiene and health is maintained in the hostel campuses. The team has already visited 25 colleges randomly. “We have already issued a detailed circular on maintaining cleanliness and hygiene in the hostels and the report on the random visit to hostels and also submitted the same to the Deputy Commissioner.”
It may be recalled that 231 students from three hostels of an institute allegedly suffered food poisoning on February 6 and 7 and were treated in about seven hospitals in the city.