Over 160 Sickened in Jordan Poisoning Outbreak
Pastor Dale Morgan
Over 160 Sickened in Jordan Poisoning Outbreak*
By JAMAL HALABY
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 27, 2007; 2:55 PM
AMMAN, Jordan -- Over 160 people from a single town in northern Jordan
were hospitalized on Saturday for poisoning, which health officials
attributed to either bad food or contaminated water. It was the third
such case in four months.
In the latest poisoning, 168 people were admitted to three hospitals in
northern Jordan since early Saturday, suffering from diarrhea, vomiting
and high fever, said an on-duty doctor at the Jerash Government Hospital
_ one of the medical facilities that received the patients.
"The exact cause is still unknown, but it's believed that the poisoning
is due to either bad food or contaminated water," the doctor said,
speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to make
press statements.
He said all the patients came from Sakeb, a town of 20,000 people
outside Jordan's famed Roman ruins of Jerash and about 30 miles north of
the capital Amman.
A Health Ministry official said some of the patients ate at a Sakeb
restaurant, where food samples are being investigated. The official
insisted on anonymity, citing the investigation under way.
No other details were immediately available.
In July, a waterborne virus gave some 500 people in a Mafraq city
suburb, north of Jerash, diarrhea and high fevers. Officials said the
episode, which forced the resignations of the water and health
ministers, was caused by a water pipe that became contaminated with
animal dung.
In August, 204 people were poisoned because they ate sandwiches with
undercooked chicken infested by the salmonella bacteria in the
Palestinian refugee camp of Baqaa, just outside Jerash. Health
authorities shut down the restaurant and banned the sale of chicken
shawerma sandwiches and homemade mayonnaise.
Despite being economically well off due to a number of joint ventures
with Israeli companies that allow the duty free export of products to
the United States, the north, health officials say, suffers from lax
health inspection standards.