NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Two children die of suspected food poisoning after takeaway

Dubai - June 15: Two young children have died from suspected food poisoning after eating a takeaway meal from a Dubai restaurant.

A five-year-old boy, his eight-year-old sister and their mother became ill after eating a home delivery from a restaurant serving Chinese food in Al Qusais.

Health officials and Dubai Municipality have launched investigations and the restaurant has been closed until the test results are returned.

The two siblings, their French mother and the house maid went to the New Medical Centre Speciality Hospital at 5.30am on Saturday, suffering from vomiting.

The family members were given an antibiotic used to treat certain bacterial infections.

They were also given fluids to help them rehydrate.

Dr Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, the managing director and chief executive of NMC, said the family were then sent home but told to return immediately if they suffered any sickness or diarrhoea.

At about 3pm the mother returned to the hospital with the children, but the boy had already died.

“When they came back to us, sadly the five-year-old boy was already dead,” Dr Shetty said.

“Doctors tried to resuscitate him but it was not successful. The doctors followed all procedures and did everything they could but unfortunately he was already dead.

“We successfully managed the mother and other child and then transferred them to the government hospital”

After being taken to Dubai Hospital, the girl died yesterday morning.

No one from the government facility was available for comment last night.

The mother is recovering in hospital. It is understood that the father of the children was out of town and did not return until Saturday evening.

“It is a very sad situation,” Dr Shetty said. “It is being taken very seriously by the health and food control authorities. The health authority came to us and took the files so they can make the necessary enquiries. This is a very unfortunate thing.”

Dubai Municipality said yesterday that following the incident, the restaurant was ordered to close.

The food control department said the closure was a “precautionary measure” and it would remain shut until laboratory tests had been conducted on the food from the restaurant.

Sources close to the family said yesterday that the couple and relatives were shattered by their loss.

The family gathered at a relative’s home yesterday and mourned their children.

Their deaths follow that of Marwa Faisal, aged four, who died on May 31, 55 minutes after she was admitted to Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah suffering from violent vomiting.

Her parents and brother were also admitted to the hospital but later recovered.

Tests showed that Marwa died of food poisoning although initial tests did not show any bacteria, hospital officials said.

More than half of Sharjah’s restaurants failed basic food hygiene inspections over the past year, and almost 500 of them were temporarily closed.

Stranded drivers falling ill in heat

AL GHUWAIFAT - JUNE 15: The plight of lorry drivers at the Saudi border is a “humanitarian crisis”, according to a hospital doctor in the nearby town of Sila.

The doctor, who works in the accident and emergency department at Ba’aya al Sila Hospital, said the drivers had a range of often serious symptoms after being trapped for days in the extreme summer heat.

Two days earlier a man had been brought to the hospital hallucinating and covered in sand.

Several people had seen him on his stomach, apparently trying to swim through the sand because he believed he was in the sea.

“We have been getting two or three cases of drivers coming in per day due to renal colic, heat stroke and diabetic emergencies,” said the doctor. “The drivers are suffering because they cannot keep their air conditioning on or else they will run out of gas. This is truly a humanitarian crisis.”

However, he added that there had been cases where drivers had appeared to be faking illness to obtain papers that would allow them to bypass the queue on medical grounds.

The queue on the road stretching back from the Saudi border was down to 12km last night, although thousands of lorries were still stuck, waiting for formalities to be completed.

More than 10 ambulances are on standby, and have been taking people to the Sila hospital.

Sultan al Shehi, one of the co-ordinators of the Red Crescent Authority efforts, said thousands of packages including fruit, bread, water and juice were being handed out twice daily.

The RCA was considering setting up a roadside clinic to treat people suffering from problems such as heat stroke, he said.

“We will be here and continue this until the problem is finished.”

Police in the area have been working closely with the RCA to try to provide the drivers with food, water and petrol when needed.

Mr al Shehi said the situation had developed into a “major problem”.

“It has moved in the last 24 hours, but it is still a big problem,” he said.

“We are giving out food and other things, which are making the men happier. Some are getting upset, but we help to calm them down.”

Other members of his team, including volunteers, drove up and down the long queue in a pickup lorry, distributing food packages.

Donations are also coming from around the UAE, including a private company yesterday that sent a lorry loaded with food and water to the area.

Schoolchildren and other members of the nearby community of Sila have also stepped in to help.

Ajlan al Mansoori, 50, from the town, which is 14km from the Saudi border, said he and his friends were among those who had decided to do what they could.

“We are going there everyday, because they don’t have anything; they can’t stay like this.”

Emad, a 25-year-old Egyptian who works in Sila as a security guard, said he and his friends had taken food and water to distribute to some of the drivers.

“We just bought some water, milk, bread and juice,” he said. “But they were so thankful to us, they are so tired and we have to help them.”

Labourers’ savings destroyed by blaze

RAS AL KHAIMAH - JUNE 15: Many labourers lost their savings in a fire that destroyed 32 cabins at a labour camp on Airport Road on Saturday.

The cause is believed to be a short circuit at the main breaker and is the third fire in five weeks that has destroyed workers’ accommodation.

There are normally six workers to a cabin.

In May, four cabins were razed at a downtown construction site after a short circuit started a fire that lasted nearly an hour. Three weeks later six cabins were destroyed by fire in Shimal.To date, no injuries have been reported.

Civil Defence said it would begin a clampdown on safety at labour camps in response to Saturday’s fire. “Now we are making inspections in all areas and we will go to the camps directly,” said Mohammad al Zaabi, the new director of Civil Defence in RAK.

Inspections would be unannounced and punishments severe, Mr al Zaabi warned. Violators risk having their companies shut and will not be issued with visas.