Children mistake rat poison for sweets in South Africa

More than 40 toddlers were taken to hospital in South Africa on Monday after mistaking rat poison for sweets.

“Upon medical examination, 17 were admitted for overnight observation, while the remaining 24 were discharged home in a satisfactory condition,” regional health authorities for Gauteng said.

Also on Monday, a group of 10 people including eight children were referred to a different hospital in the same province.

Health authorities say this is all part of an “alarming” overall rise in food poisoning cases – with a total of 863 such incidents reported since last October.

They’re advising parents and guardians to take greater care to protect children, and say anybody with food-poisoning symptoms – such as nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach aches – should visit their nearest health centre as quickly as possible.

-BBC

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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