CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, (PNA) -– Provincial Governor Yevgeny Vincente Emano on Tuesday ordered the dispatch of a medical team to assist 130 patients who fell ill due to food poisoning Monday afternoon in the eastern town of Medina in Misamis Oriental.
Emano instructed the staff of the Misamis Oriental Care System (MisOr CareS) to provide all necessary medical assistance to the victims, mostly children, who are now confined in various provincial hospitals in the province’s east district.
He said that he has instructed the “MisOr CareS” staff to make sure that the victims’ medical needs would be attended to and that they would come out of the hospital without paying a single cent.
The initial report reaching the provincial capitol Monday afternoon, said that the victims had eaten some beef during a fiesta celebration in the farming village of San Vicente, an outskirt village of Medina, 111 kilometers east of Cagayan De Oro City.
The victims are now undergoing treatment in the provincial hospitals of Gingoog City in Bagong Lipunan Hospital – 27, Gingoog Sanitarium – 7, Gingoog Provincial Hospital – 65.
Some patients were also admitted to the town hospitals in the Medina Provincial Hospital – 16, Talisayan Provincial Hospital – 10, and Magsaysay Provincial Hospital – 5.
This is the first time that a mass food poisoning incident occurred in Misamis Oriental and the medical team is conducting an investigation on its probable cause, Emano said.
He said that the launching of the “MisOr CareS” last month – a health and social program of the provincial government where a hospital patient would be extended free medicines and medical consultations – would now serve its purpose.