Photo: meal of fish and rice believed to be contaminated with rat poison.
At least 3 Peruvian children have died, and another hundred remain ill after eating a meal of fish and rice believed to be contaminated with rat poison.
National Food Assistance Program donations to Redondo, a settlement some 310 miles northwest of Lima, became contaminated with pesticides.
Officials said that a meal of rice and fish, donated for a nutrition program, was accidentally contaminated, giving those who ate it “a carbonates intoxication, which means rat poison,” according to Peruvian health official Miguel Zumaeta.
Three children between the ages of six and ten years old have died, and 89 others still present signs of illness. At least five adults are also very sick.
Those affected have been transported to area hospitals, presenting severe vomiting spells, stomach cramps and acute dehydration.
Investigators hypothesize that the person who prepared the meal accidentally used a bucket contaminated with the rat poison to hold the raw fish prior to cooking it.
Other some media sources say 2 more children have died, but officials haven’t issued a statement confirming those claims.
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