CALM RETURNS TO ARCHBISHOP PORTER ...But parents want children home (1b, FEB 12, 2010)

Story: Kwame Asiedu-Marfo, Takoradi

CALM appears to have returned to Archbishop Porter Girls’ Senior High School after it was afflicted by a suspected case of food poisoning last Wednesday.
About 100 students who were plagued by stomach pains, vomiting, diarrhoea and general weakness after meals last Wednesday were rushed to the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital, suspected to be suffering from food poisoning.
But the cause was not immediately known, as the authorities awaited the results of tests being conducted by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and the Ghana Standards Board which took samples of water and food from the school to ascertain the real cause.
Some of the students, however, said they suspected that the water tank which was recently cleaned and refilled or the rice with groundnut soup which they took for lunch on Tuesday could provide some clues.
Eighty of the students were treated and discharged, while the rest were admitted at the Effia Nkwanta and the Essikado hospitals for observation.
Those who were discharged but still showed signs of weakness and dizziness were sent back to the Effia Nkwanta Hospital for review.
While the school authorities and health workers apply measures to normalise the situation, the incident has struck panic among parents who have moved to the school and are pleading for the school to be closed down so that they can take their children home to take proper care of them.
Parents and the authorities of the school are discussing whether or not the school should be closed down.
According to the parents, since the cause of the problem could not immediately be ascertained, the students should be allowed to go home until the situation was brought under control.
Some of the parents who spoke to the Daily Graphic expressed concern over the situation and explained that the sick children, when left alone in the school, would feel reluctant to take their medications, noting that if the students were allowed to be with their parents, the parents would make sure that their children took their medications.
As of press time a meeting was being held between the school authorities and the parents on the school premises to plot the way forward.
The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the school, Mr J.K. Quayson, said the authorities could not close down the school but that parents who were desirous of taking their sick children home could do so.
The Western Regional Director of Health, Dr (Mrs) Linda Vanotoo, said it was good for the parents to know what had happened but explained that there were several organisms and viruses that could cause cholera or food poisoning, adding that cholera and food poisoning were both associated with diarrhoea and vomiting.
“We have not diagnosed diarrhoea or food poisoning,” she stressed, adding, “Investigations are still going on.”
The Member of Parliament for Essikadu-Ketan, Mr Joe Ghartey, said nobody should apportion blame for the unfortunate situation and advised the students to take the advice of the medical team to bring the situation under control.
Meanwhile, a medical team led by the Deputy Western Regional Director of Health, Dr Kwaku Annin Karikari, has mounted a 24-hour surveillance on the school to monitor the situation, while a tent has been erected for emergency cases.
According to Dr Karikari, the situation was under control, adding that the team would continue to monitor the situation.
Anxious parents and guardians who had travelled from far and near besieged the main gate of the school, wanting to find out whether their children and wards were victims, but they were initially prevented from entering the school.
They were later allowed in, with the assurance that the school authorities were expected to have a meeting with them and brief them on the situation.