Eighty-four children and parents were hospitalized Thursday in a northern Philippine province for food poisoning after they ate contaminated spaghetti, the health department said. The victims, aged one to 44 years, ate the spaghetti after graduation rites at a daycare center in Concepcion town in Tarlac province, 90 kilometers north of Manila. The health department said the victims were under observation after being treated with intravenous fluids in two hospitals in the provincial capital. They suffered abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhoea one hour after eating the food, a statement said. Preliminary laboratory results showed the poisoning was caused by staphylococcus, a bacteria that grows when food is not properly prepared and stored, it added. A team of epidemiologists has been dispatched to the area to further investigate the incident, the second mass poisoning in the Philippines this month. Last week, 27 school children died and more than 100 others were hospitalized after eating fried sweetened cassava contaminated with pesticide in the central province of Bohol.
