Dozens of students hospitalized in Nha Trang with food poisoning symptoms

The Khanh Hoa General Hospital received 20 students in the morning, with 17 from Vinh Truong Primary School and three from Tran Hung Dao Middle School. Another student was taken to the Phuc Sinh General Clinic.

By noon, a total of 28 students from the two schools had been admitted to hospital, according to the Nha Trang People's Committee. All patients showed symptoms like vomiting, stomachache and difficulty breathing after eating breakfast. The meals, including chicken rice, sushi and fast food, were bought by the students' families from various stores in the area.

Doctors suspected that the students suffered from food poisoning.

One fifth grader died at the hospital in the morning, but a representative of the Department of Health of Khanh Hoa Province, home to Nha Trang, said her cause of death "was not food poisoning."

The deceased girl had a heart condition, according to the health department. Before she was hospitalized, she ate sushi, then she said she felt tired and fainted.

"The patient was admitted when her heart and breathing had stopped," the health official said.

The rest of the students are stable and are being monitored.

Tran Thanh Tan, a parent of a hospitalized student from Vinh Truong Primary School, said his child ate chicken rice at a store in front of the school. By around 8 a.m., his child and some of their classmates suffered stomachache.

The police of Nha Trang is cooperating with the Vinh Truong Ward People’s Committee, the medical sector and other relevant authorities to extract statements from certain food stores that had sold meals to the students.

Last month, around 369 people in Nha Trang suffered from food poisoning after eating chicken rice at a local store.