Boy dies of food poisoning

MALASIQUI, Pangasinan — Another four-year-old boy died Saturday while six other members of his family were confined at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital (PPH) in San Carlos City for food poisoning caused by eating tahong (mussels) which was earlier banned by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to be sold or eaten.

This brings to two the number of tahong deaths last week as a seven-year-old boy died Friday in Dagupan City while his father and sister were confined at the Pangasinan Medical Center in Dagupan City.

Jayson Terrado of barangay Pasima this town died while being treated at the PPH while the rest of his family, namely Cesar, his father, Veronica, his mother and his four siblings, Joel, 14, Jocelyn, 12, Jackielou, eight and Jessie, seven, were confined at the said hospital. The victims manifested red spots in their bodies, numbness, vomiting, and nausea after they had tahong for lunch Saturday.

The fatality in Dagupan City was identified as Jomar Martinez of barangay Pugaro.

BFAR authorities are still verifying where the mussels the victims consumed came from.

BFAR regional director Nestor Domenden told The STAR earlier in a phone interview that three similar cases of mussels poisoning in Bolinao town were reported to him by his staff last week.

The victims whom he failed to identify were reportedly brought to the Bolinao Community Hospital. One of them was seriously ill, report reaching Domenden said.

Domenden said that the BFAR regional office has issued on April 11 a regional temporary and preliminary advisory and another on April 14 for the local government units of Bolinao and Anda to advise their constituents to refrain from collecting, eating or trading mussels, oysters and other seashells because of a result of an examination collected by BFAR that found out saxitoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in their waters.

On April 15, the BFAR central office issued another formal advisory aimed to strengthen the earlier advisories issued by their local offices in Region I. – Eva Visperas