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KOTA BARU: A total of 108 people fell ill from food poisoning, including nine who are still receiving treatment at the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital here, after patronising a restaurant near Pengkalan Chepa since Oct 18.

Kelantan state health department director Datuk Dr Zaini Hussin said reports related to the incident were received by the Kota Baru district health office from private clinics and government hospitals that treated the patients involved as it is a notifiable disease.

“All the patients were found to have suffered symptoms such as diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, dizziness and vomiting and were reported to be in stable condition.

“Preliminary investigations showed all of them had a history of eating tandoori chicken at the restaurant on Oct 17, but further investigations are still underway,” he said.

Commenting further, Dr Zaini said an inspection carried out at the eatery on Oct 19 and it was ordered to close under Section 18 (1), Prevention and Control Act Infectious Disease Act 1988 (Act 342).

“Sampling was carried out on 16 samples taken which are patient clinical samples, food handler samples, food, water and environment.

“The incident of food poisoning at the premises is a recurrence after the first episode happened in January,” he said.- Bernama