At least 5 people have died of suspected food poisoning on Tuesday in Bur payam of South Sudan’s Torit State, a health official has said.
The acting medical director of Torit Hospital told Radio Tamazuj that the five include a father, his three children, and a neighbor’s child.
Dr. Santina Ikoki Cirino said the five are suspected to have shared a meal on Sunday evening, leading to their deaths on Monday and Tuesday.
“On Monday, the four were brought here dead. They include a man and his three children, two girls and one boy of ages 10, 6 and 4. So we did a postmortem and we found that they were dehydrated and their hands had turned yellow. The next day, the neighbors’ child was brought with the same symptoms as the others. They had convulsions then fever until she died,” she added.
According to the doctor, the oldest girl, aged 10, also deceased, prepared the meal of fish and vegetables that turned deadly.
She said together with other health officials, they have collected some samples from the scene of the incident for testing to determine the cause of death.
Justine Kleopas Tukwaru the chief inspector at Torit municipality police confirmed the incident and identified the deceased man as 43-year-old Daniel Odwa.
“From our observation, the legs and the hands are all swollen. Our observation clearly indicates there was poisoning,” he added.
He noted that the police have launched investigations into the deaths to establish the cause of death.