All 53 persons who ate 'poisoned' waakye in Oyibi doing well

All 53 people who experienced symptoms of foodborne disease after eating ‘waakye’ or plain rice and tomato stew from a food vendor at Oyibi in the Adenta Municipality, Accra, are doing well.

Dr Esther Dankwa, District Director of Health, Kpone Katamanso, said “none of the victims has reported back with any symptoms of adverse effect, so we are sure they are all fine and have returned to their normal duties.”

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), she said the Directorate was yet to finalise its report, saying “we gave our Directors two weeks, so we are working hard to finalise it by next week. Meanwhile, we still go by the Food and Drug Authority’s report”.

Operations of the food vendor, ‘Yellow Sisi’, were suspended by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) until measures were put in place to ensure that activities were brought into compliance to prevent future occurrences.

Kwabena Amankwah, a Lotto Operator, and one of the victims told the GNA that he was well and had resumed work after being on admission to the hospital for five days.

The FDA, earlier in a release, indicated that investigations done jointly with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), had revealed that 53 people experienced symptoms of the foodborne disease after eating the ‘waakye’ and that one person had been reported dead, with the exact cause of death not confirmed.

It said an environmental assessment of the food preparation site of three vending sites at Bush Canteen, Prison Joint and Sharp Curve Joint revealed poor food handling practices, which could have resulted in the contamination of the food, leading to the foodborne disease outbreak.