ADILABAD: As many as 150 people fell ill due to suspected food poisoning in Pendalwada village in Jainath mandal in the district and of them, 47 are undergoing treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Institute Medical Sciences (RIMS) here, doctors said on Sunday.
The 47 victims were shifted to RIMS in an ambulance and private vehicles. The remaining victims are under treatment at a medical camp set up by the administration in the village. According to the villagers, about 200 of them attended a bhajan programme (Saptha) in the village on Friday and Saturday. The villagers ate the food on Friday night and then they ate the same food on Saturday also as it was given to them as prasadam by the organisers.
By Saturday evening, they began having stomach pain and soon all of them developed nausea resulting in frequenting vomiting. Suspecting food poisoning, the organisers and the villagers shifted 47 of them to RIMS for treatment as their condition appeared critical while the rest were treated in the village.
RIMS superintendent Dr P Satyanarayana said that he did not know the nature of food poisoning as yet.
“The 47 villagers have been admitted to our hospital and they are responding to the treatment. Police will find out how the food poisoning had occurred,” he said.
The problem arose when the people ate the food that had become stale. The food was served on Friday night but they had saved some of it for Saturday and consumed it. By evening, they had a problem. In October, three Adivasis died after they ate contaminated food at a marriage function in Kolamguda hamlet as they compromised on hygiene not knowing the deleterious effect it would have on them, a doctor at RIMS said.