Kompong Chhnang province authorities are testing the food that sent 23 students at a nonprofit school to a nearby health clinic to be treated for food poisoning, police said.
The students at Leadership Character Development Institute became nauseated and threw up Friday after eating fried morning glory picked from a nearby pond, said So Kim An, police subcommissioner for Kompong Chhnang province. The students were taken to a provincial clinic that night and returned to school the next morning. None were seriously ill, authorities said.
“All are safe now and returned to the center,” So Kim An said.
L-CDI Country Director Max Singh said the students became sick over the course of two days. The students were treated for free, he said, because of an agreement with the Ministry of Education under which the school agrees that students will donate blood regularly. Singh said the school has learned its lesson.
From now on, staff will purchase their vegetables at local markets rather than picking them out of nearby ponds. “We’ll be a little more careful,” he said.
Police have collected some of the suspect food for testing, So Kim An said. The plants might have contained bacteria from the pond that survived the cooking process, he said.
