All news

48 children returning from summer camp catch dysentery

Forty seven children and five adults who accompanied them during the travel were hospitalized

PETROZAVODSK, September 15 (Itar-Tass) —— The number of children who caught acute enteric infection while travelling by rail from the summer vacation destination has increased from 46 to 48, a spokesman for the health ministry of the Russian republic of Karelia told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

Forty seven children and five adults who accompanied them during the travel were hospitalized.

According to the spokesman, tests run on the hospitalized children showed the presence of dysentery. Dysentery bacilli (Shigella dysenteriae) are transferred from person to person or from surfaces or articles which have been contaminated by an infected person and cause diarrhea containing blood or mucus, vomiting, stomach pains, and fever.

A total of 33 children were hospitalized to clinics outside of the republic of Karelia, in the cities of Michurinsk, Ryazan, Moscow, and Tver. Medics say they are in a satisfactory condition. Six children have already been discharged from hospitals and taken home to Karelia.

Medics say the outbreak was caused by food intoxication.

The food poisoning incident occurred on September 9 in a children’s summer camp in Russia’s southern Krasnodar territory. About 100 children were on their way home to Karelia when thirty nine out them felt sick. They were taken off the train to be hospitalized.