An outbreak of food poisoning has sickened thousands of Egyptian schoolchildren this month, figures showed Thursday, sending parents rushing to hospitals and leading the Education Ministry to temporarily suspend its school lunch program.
Egypt saw 4,650 suspected food poisoning cases in schools nationwide in March alone, the Cabinet said in a statement carried by state-run news agency MENA, compared to some 300 cases previously reported since the beginning of the academic year in September.
In a single incident last week in the southern city of Sohag, at least 3,353 students were affected. Similar outbreaks have taken place this week in other governorates, though on a much smaller scale, including in the canal city of Suez, Menoufiya in the Nile Delta and the southern city of Aswan.
FoodWorld 