Samples still at Wits Medical School (NHLS Infection Control Services Laboratory) for chemical and bacteriological analyses following a suspected food poisoning outbreak and death of a pupil at Aurora Comprehensive school, in Ekurhuleni.
Aurora Comprehensive School is a boarding school that provides lodging to 153 children of primary school going age situated on a plot in Bapsfontein on R25. On 18 April 2013, 11 pupils initially complained of headache, stomach ache, nausea and vomiting and they were sent to Arwyp Hospital where 4 were admitted and 7 were treated and sent back to the school.
The next day, 19 April, a further 15 were attended to at Tembisa Hospital; 14 were discharged, 1 admitted and 1 unfortunately passed on in the school premises. No other cases have been reported to date.
The Ekurhuleni District Outbreak Response Team was informed about the incident and a team, including the Director of Environmental Health from the Ekurhuleni Metro, visited the school on the same day, to conduct an investigation. Those who were admitted into the hospital were discharged on 22 April 2013.
When the outbreak team visited the school there was no food left over from the night of 18 April 2013, however samples of food left over from breakfast on 19 April 2013 and water from the borehole used by the school, were collected.
The District Surveillance Officer visited the Arwyp and Tembisa Hospitals on 23 April 2013 to gather additional information on the pupils seen by the hospital. A report on this aspect of the investigation is still pending.
