Payatas food poisoning

A two-year-old girl died while 31 others, all living in a scavengers’ community inside the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City, were taken to the hospital after they partook of a donated plastic bag full of spoiled longganiza Monday night.

Cherry Lyn Alib, of the Department of Health’s National Epidemiology Center (NEC), said they have obtained specimens of the longganiza eaten by the victims which they will test to help them determine what caused the death of Lyka Oblino and the poisoning of her family and neighbors at Area 5, Barangay Bagong Silangan, Payatas, Quezon City.

Alib said investigation conducted by NEC epidemiologists learned that a bag of six kilos of longganiza and three pieces of rotting mangoes was donated to a resident of the area at around 10 a.m. Monday.

The stranger reportedly told the recipient that the food can still be eaten.

It was learned that the six kilos of longganiza were then divided and shared equally among the nine scavenger families residing at Area 5.

All the families cooked and ate the longganiza for dinner at around 6 p.m. after which, one by one, they started developing cyanosis, or the coloring of the area around the lips to bluish or blackish color, and had difficulty in breathing.

Oblino was pronounced dead on arrival at the East Avenue Medical Hospital where the 31 other victims, 13 of whom were children, were taken for treatment.

Twenty-three of the victims reportedly left the hospital against the advice of their attending doctors. The remaining victims are now in stable condition. All were given gastric lavage or chemical cleansing of the stomach.

Dr. Chito Navarro, also of the NEC, said that initially, they are eyeing nitrite poisoning to be the cause of the incident.

Nitrite of salitre, Navarro explained, was a food preservative commonly used to preserve longganiza and tocino. The chemical can be harmful if not used properly, he added.

Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte said the city will foot the hospital bills of the victims.