PILIBHIT: As many as 34 children between five and 14 years old and nine adults were taken ill after consuming food in a feast arranged at Pathrasia village under Barkhera police station on the occasion of Janmashtami on Monday night.District food and safety officer ordered that samples of food served be collected and sent for testing. Later, medical teams were deployed at the village.All the victims complained of acute abdominal pain, nausea, loose motions and dehydration. They were shifted to the community health centre at Barkhera by ‘Dial 100’ police team at about round 10 pm. In view of their deteriorating condition, they were referred to the district hospital in Pilibhit late in the night.According to sub-divisional magistrate of Bisalpur circle Vandana Trivedi, who rushed to the community health centre where the ailing children and adults were admitted, the feast had been arranged at the village temple by the priests. They had got rice and kadi cooked in the morning but it was served to devotees in the evening hours.Medical experts have not ruled out stale food as the cause of food poisoning, especially as the weather is hot and damp.As a precautionary measure, all children at the village in addition to those who were shifted to hospital were immediately administered oral re-hydration solution (ORS), said Trivedi.Superintendent of Barkhera community health centre Dr SK Singh told TOI that 13 of the severely affected children were shifted by ambulance to district government hospital at Pilibhit. The others were shifted later as the community health centre did not have adequate means of admitting and administering medical treatment to 43 patients at a time.District’s chief medical officer Dr Seema Agarwal on Tuesday said the condition of all the children and adults was stable. “The health department teams have been deployed at the village concerned to examine each and every child who had attended the feast and to provide the medical assistance wherever needed,” she added.

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