Another 124 sickened after eating breakfast

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SANTO DOMINGO. With the intoxication yesterday of 124 students in the city of Azua after they ate their school breakfast, the doubt increases regarding the quality of the foods that are served in the snacks and regarding the alleged sabotage against the program that the authorities have referred to.

With the students of the Profesor Angel Rivera School, of the La Bombita section of Azua, the total has climbed to over 200 cases of students affected so far this month.

The students were taken urgently to the Taiwan public hospital with stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhea, symptoms that began to occur after drinking the breakfast milk that is distributed by Isura, in Azua, and is handled by the Cattlemen's Cooperative of the Southern Region.

The director of the hospital, Rafael Herasme Matos, said via telephone that the children are out of danger, and that they are waiting for the results of the clinical analysis that was carried out by the Department of Forensic Pathology to establish the real cause of the events.

Upon hearing of the new cases, the Minister of Education, Melanio {aredes, said that they will convene a meeting of the media directors in order to inform them regarding the strategy that he is going to follow in order to stop the situation.

For his part, the Vice-Minister of Education, Adalberto Martinez said that the first reports referred to 30 cases.

The numbers went up as the minutes passed, as well as the hysteria and worry of the parents and professors that, to hear tell of it from the director of the school, went to the hospital, to find out if any of the affected students was a son or a daughter, and others went to learn about the condition of their relatives.

Due to previous intoxications, before the start of the new school year, the Minister of Education requested the intervention of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Food Program, and the Pan American Health Organization to watch over the nutrition levels of the foods that are served in the school breakfast in order to guarantee that they have the adequate nutrition levels.

Commission travels to Azua

Under instruction of the Attorney General of the Republic Radhames Jimenez Peña, the commission that is investigating the cases of intoxications related to the school breakfast program went to Azua yesterday to find out about a case of intoxication that affected nearly 70 children. The commission is made up of assistant Attorneys General Frank Soto and Bolivar Sanchez as well as the prosecutors of the judicial districts of Santiago and Cotui, Yeni Berenice Reynoso and Garina Almonte.

The Attorney General appointed the prosecutor for Azua, Rafael Peña Brito to the commission.