Mass food poisoning kills child, 800 others hospitalized in Amman

A mass food poisoning from shawarma eaten from a Jordan restaurant has killed a 5-year-old boy with about 826 people hospitalized.

Jordan’s Health officials, who paid the establishment in Amman a visit on Monday, discovered that the meat had not been refrigerated during heatwave temperatures.

Amman has been experiencing temperatures above 100F in recent days.

Adnan Ishaq, a spokesperson from Jordan’s Health Ministry, said that lab tests had shown “poor hygiene and bacteria” in the poultry and meat from the restaurant.

The Health Ministry reported that the 5-year-old boy died of massive poisoning.

The the young boy who died, suffered heart failure.

Many medical workers have been moved to the various hospitals to deal with the mass food-poisoning crisis, and care for the large number of patients affected.

Mohammad Abed, the Director of Prince Hussein Hospital reported that “All those affected said they had eaten meals from the same restaurant.”

A shawarma dish in Jordan usually costs around $1.50, but a half-price discount had drawn far more customers than normal to the restaurant in the Baqa’a district.

On Wednesday, four people were in intensive care and 321 people were in a stable condition being treated in hospital.

As of Friday July 31, 2020, the people in intensive care were discharged, other patients were stable, some had their stomach pumped and were receiving fluids.

No new cases of food-poisoning relating to the same restaurant have been reported.