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Twincharged

in the wake of Summer Palace in Regent Hotel being downgraded in terms of hygiene (damn !! C for a 5 star hotel !!??) ...

 

I was wondering how do authorities classify it as a mass food poisoning situation ??

 

must all the victims all start to vomit and fall sick in the restaurant then be considered as the restaurant's fault ?

Edited by Ysc3
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in the wake of Summer Palace in Regent Hotel being downgraded in terms of hygiene (damn !! C for a 5 star hotel !!??) ...

 

I was wondering how do authorities classify it as a mass food poisoning situation ??

 

must all the victims all start to vomit and fall sick in the restaurant then be considered as the restaurant's fault ?

 

mass = more than one case and not isolated? 

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Easy lah ..... doctors got protocol to follow. If suddenly see more patients with same illness, then must ask more. then 1+1=2 lor ...

 

sometimes things just happen lah ..... recently, Goodwood Park famous Durian cakes also kenna wor 

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Twincharged

mass = more than one case and not isolated? 

wah .. you really see me dun have  ar ??

 

I mean to say the 43 ppl who kenah the summer palace FP case live all over Singapore ... they will go to see different DRs ...

 

so who will use what data to backtrack to summer palace ? how can "they" tell that its not isolated and mass FP? unless all the 43 goes to one medical center ?

 

eg.

 

Mr Tan goes to  Dr Lim Clinic in Pasir Ris

 

Mr Lim does to Dr Chew Clinic in Macpherson

 

Mrs Chew goes to Dr Quek Clinic in Jurong East

 

Ms Kwa goes to SGH

 

.... they all tell the DRs that they ate at Summer palace ... but does the DRs have a common database to record such data to narrow it back to summer palace ?

Easy lah ..... doctors got protocol to follow. If suddenly see more patients with same illness, then must ask more. then 1+1=2 lor ...

 

sometimes things just happen lah ..... recently, Goodwood Park famous Durian cakes also kenna wor 

see my reply to kdash ... how does the different DRs know ??

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wah .. you really see me dun have  ar ??

 

I mean to say the 43 ppl who kenah the summer palace FP case live all over Singapore ... they will go to see different DRs ...

 

so who will use what data to backtrack to summer palace ? how can "they" tell that its not isolated and mass FP? unless all the 43 goes to one medical center ?

 

eg.

 

Mr Tan goes to  Dr Lim Clinic in Pasir Ris

 

Mr Lim does to Dr Chew Clinic in Macpherson

 

Mrs Chew goes to Dr Quek Clinic in Jurong East

 

Ms Kwa goes to SGH

 

.... they all tell the DRs that they ate at Summer palace ... but does the DRs have a common database to record such data to narrow it back to summer palace ?

 

probably these groups of people includes family and friends ...... 

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I think they look into all factors like food storage and even food handling. The kitchen will be thoroughly checked by the authorities.

Edited by Watwheels
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see my reply to kdash ... how does the different DRs know ??

 

I remember my doc asking

 

"Anyone else in your family vomit/diarrhea?" 

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it's quite difficult to point a finger in so called food poisoning.

 

If the infective load u ate is small and if it's more of a bacteria ingested instead of the preformed toxins, it could have been something u ingested 2 days ago instead of just hours before (which is classic preformed toxins).

 

I seldom label anyone as having food poisoning, unless it's something clear-cut like a family ate a steamboat and all 3-4 of them started vomiting/diarrhoea on the same night.

 

This is not even including the element of viral related gastroenteritis which includes your norovirus etc.

There's a classic case of someone having bad vomiting in a diner in USA, 100+ people subsequently contracted the norovirus from that one person. That's not food poisoning.

 

Edited by Lala81
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Twincharged

I remember my doc asking

 

"Anyone else in your family vomit/diarrhea?" 

 

any idea what is the threshold for one DR to have a restaurant suspected for food poisoning ?

 

eg, my family goes to eat BKT ... only my sis and me eat the dry chilli BKT ... end up both of us go back home separately and then vomit and lausai ...visit different Drs .... but then how will the Dr suspect ?

it's quite difficult to point a finger in so called food poisoning.

 

correct ... that's why I want to find out what led the auth back to summer palace ?

 

usually a person eats at an eatery then goes home then falls sick and will see his nearest GP.

 

how so they link all the cases together ??

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wah .. you really see me dun have  ar ??

 

I mean to say the 43 ppl who kenah the summer palace FP case live all over Singapore ... they will go to see different DRs ...

 

so who will use what data to backtrack to summer palace ? how can "they" tell that its not isolated and mass FP? unless all the 43 goes to one medical center ?

 

eg.

 

Mr Tan goes to  Dr Lim Clinic in Pasir Ris

 

Mr Lim does to Dr Chew Clinic in Macpherson

 

Mrs Chew goes to Dr Quek Clinic in Jurong East

 

Ms Kwa goes to SGH

 

.... they all tell the DRs that they ate at Summer palace ... but does the DRs have a common database to record such data to narrow it back to summer palace ?

see my reply to kdash ... how does the different DRs know ??

 

 

questions will be asked like where and what you eat in last 8 hours, etc. If the event at Regent happen to be a wedding or party, chances of few people of friends or family members eating there and having the same symptom and they visited the same clinic. 

 

If there is more than one incident that the clinic had seen, they will probably alarm the authority to do a check in the hotel/restaurant. Then the host will contact people who attend the event lor.

Edited by Jman888
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After the Indian Rojak case, old article from ST

 

 

 

MASS FOOD POISONING CASE: Hospitals and GPs have system to track outbreaks

 

Doctors will notify Health Ministry the moment they suspect link between patients with food poisoning symptoms
By Judith Tan

THE first eight patients suffering from food poisoning after eating Indian rojak from the Geylang Serai Temporary Market turned up at the Changi General Hospital (CGH) early last Friday morning.

This was despite the fact that a few people were already feeling ill as early as last Wednesday.

 

It was only at 10pm that Friday night, after doctors at the hospital’s emergency department noticed a surge of patients with similar but more severe symptoms, that the Ministry of Health (MOH) was informed.

‘These patients had started to come in after 5pm. Once we noticed a pattern, we reviewed the past 24 hours’ records for patients with the same symptoms,’ said a CGH spokesman.

By Monday, CGH had treated 77 of the 137 affected patients.

As a result of the food poisoning, 37 people were hospitalised. Of these, one person has died and another remains in a coma.

The patient in a coma, Madam Noraini Kasim, 59, was taken on Sunday to the emergency department of Alexandra Hospital, ‘unconscious and in an unstable condition’.

‘We resuscitated her and subsequently admitted her to the intensive care unit. We immediately notified MOH, in view of the fact that she had eaten at the rojak stall in Geylang Serai,’ the hospital’s spokesman said.

Yesterday, the MOH’s spokesman said there was an established system of surveillance and reporting of mass food poisoning cases with all health-care institutions and general practitioners (GPs).

‘This allows for epidemiological investigations to kick in immediately upon notification,’ she said.

‘Singular and isolated food poisoning cases are not routinely notified to MOH, but when doctors have cause to suspect a common link between patients with food poisoning symptoms, MOH will be notified.’

The National University Hospital does not routinely report single and isolated cases of food poisoning to MOH.

But its spokesman said: ‘A doctor might flag such cases to MOH when he notices a sudden increase in the number of patients with gastroenteritis from a particular point source, especially when extended family members of the patient also have the symptoms.’

The KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital has its own internal system. When a discernible pattern is picked up at the emergency department, the relevant heads will be notified and the necessary action taken.

Family physicians approached by The Straits Times said they would inform the authorities when they see a similar pattern of symptoms coming from a cluster of between five and 10 patients.

GP Dana Elliott Srither said his alarm bells would sound if a patient suffers from sudden low blood pressure or is unable to carry out daily activities such as walking, eating or drinking.

In addition, doctors at the Raffles Medical Group also notify the ministry even when there is ‘an isolated case of salmonella poisoning’, the hospital’s spokesman said, adding that this is at the request of the MOH.

Salmonella is a bacterium found in poultry, eggs, unprocessed milk as well as meat and water.

In December 2007, there was an outbreak of salmonella poisoning when more than 200 people fell ill after they ate chocolate and hazelnut pastries bought from bakery chain Prima Deli.

Investigations pinpointed salmonella-contaminated ingredients, like hazelnut paste and chocolate cream, as the culprits behind the outbreak.

The chain was ordered to be closed for two weeks and fined the maximum $5,000 as a result.

[email protected]

 

Edited by Othello
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any idea what is the threshold for one DR to have a restaurant suspected for food poisoning ?

 

eg, my family goes to eat BKT ... only my sis and me eat the dry chilli BKT ... end up both of us go back home separately and then vomit and lausai ...visit different Drs .... but then how will the Dr suspect ?

correct ... that's why I want to find out what led the auth back to summer palace ?

 

usually a person eats at an eatery then goes home then falls sick and will see his nearest GP.

 

how so they link all the cases together ??

 

The threshold is usually 3 cases within the same day. Probably a whole family or a cluster visited one doctor, then alerted MOH. Then MOH started asking the restaurant to do contact tracing, then build up from there lor.

Summer palace probably need phone reservations cao cao to get a seat during normal days.

 

Frankly this is only for NEA side to prevent further future episodes, to the doctor, it doesn't make a difference, the treatment is still the same in 95% of the cases.

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Twincharged

questions will be asked like where and what you eat in last 8 hours, etc. If the event at Regent happen to be a wedding or party, chances of few people of friends or family members eating there and having the same symptom and they visited the same clinic. 

 

If there is more than one incident that the clinic had seen, they will probably alarm the authority to do a check in the hotel/restaurant. Then the host will contact people who attend the event lor.

we will drop this particular case;

 

but what if the victims were all unrelated and do not know each other and all lived in different parts of SG and visited different DRs ? will the Drs be able to establish a case of suspected food poisoning ?

 

if "they" cannot find a link to connect an unrelated group of people to a certain eatery which caused the FP, the there would be many eateries that got away coz no victim group can pinpoint back to them right ?

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we will drop this particular case;

 

but what if the victims were all unrelated and do not know each other and all lived in different parts of SG and visited different DRs ? will the Drs be able to establish a case of suspected food poisoning ?

 

if "they" cannot find a link to connect an unrelated group of people to a certain eatery which caused the FP, the there would be many eateries that got away coz no victim group can pinpoint back to them right ?

 

so what u want to do about it?

 

u want every patient who has GE symptoms out of which i'm sure there are tens of thousands every single day in SG to fill in a food history of their last 3 days food intake?

 

"i woke up this morning and i drank milo. vomited after that"

So u want to ask Milo recall their milo tins?

 

There's food safety and there's some reasonable expectation of what regulations can prevent.

 

Edited by Lala81
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Twincharged

so what u want to do about it?

 

u want every patient who has GE symptoms out of which i'm sure there are tens of thousands every single day in SG to fill in a food history of their last 3 days food intake?

 

"i woke up this morning and i drank milo. vomited after that"

So u want to ask Milo recall their milo tins?

your tone seems off abit ... if you dunno just don't reply.

 

I am just trying to find out how to establish if FP took place. anything wrong with that ?

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we will drop this particular case;

 

but what if the victims were all unrelated and do not know each other and all lived in different parts of SG and visited different DRs ? will the Drs be able to establish a case of suspected food poisoning ?

 

if "they" cannot find a link to connect an unrelated group of people to a certain eatery which caused the FP, the there would be many eateries that got away coz no victim group can pinpoint back to them right ?

 

actually, what is your concern ? 

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your tone seems off abit ... if you dunno just don't reply.

 

I am just trying to find out how to establish if FP took place. anything wrong with that ?

 

 

 

The threshold is usually 3 cases within the same day. Probably a whole family or a cluster visited one doctor, then alerted MOH. Then MOH started asking the restaurant to do contact tracing, then build up from there lor.

 

I already answered. 

obviously the banquet operators or food caterers are the ones that are easiest to trace.

Hence food caterers are the most obsessed with preventing GE cases. They even explicitly write not to take away food (which 99% of people ignore anyway).

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Hence food caterers are the most obsessed with preventing GE cases. They even explicitly write not to take away food (which 99% of people ignore anyway).

 

ya lor. Whenever I see my parents bring home and put in fridge, I sure take and throw away, saying they've gone bad. God knows what time the food were prepared !! 

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