Kericho: 39 Bureti Training Institute students hospitalised after drinking contaminated water

Thirty-nine students from Bureti Technical Training Institute were on Tuesday rushed to Kapkatet sub-county hospital after falling ill due to suspected water contamination.

Medical officers at the hospital's emergency unit confirmed that the first batch of affected students arrived at the hospital around 5pm.

The students were complaining of abdominal pain and epigastric pain.

"Tulifika hapa jana kwa sababu ya shida ya tumbo…walisema ni shida ya maji,” said one of the students.

They were initially taken to Cheplanget Health Dispensary before being referred to the said hospital for further treatment.

“Yesterday we received 39 students from Bureti who had acute abdominal pain symptoms and some were vomiting. Out of the 39, four were sick, we stabilized three in our casualty and we admitted one gentleman who had what looked like a shock with severe abdominal pain,” said Deputy Medical Superintendant Dr. Joseph Muia.

Dr. Muia said that public health officials have since been dispatched to the school and are collecting food and water samples to establish the cause of the contamination.

“According to the report we received, it was attributed that the cause was some water they took in the school but we are still trying to investigate whether it is the cause and some of our health teams have gone to get samples and food they took…it looks like a case of mass food poisoning related to food or water,” he added.

The student who was admitted is recuperating well and the doctor said he may be discharged on Thursday.