At least 16 children, mostly between the ages of two and five, have been hospitalized with food poisoning from dinner in a kindergarten in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, local education and health authorities confirmed on Friday.

 

Seven of the 16 children, including one in a serious condition, are receiving treatment and the others are under medical observation at the Xinjiang Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hospital.

 

The children who are taken ill showed symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness after eating a bean dish for dinner with 25 others on Wednesday in the No.3 Kindergarten of Urumqi, according to a teacher surnamed Shang.

 

She also said there might be other children receiving treatment for food poisoning in other hospitals.

 

The first children was admitted to Xinjiang TCM Hospital on Wednesday night. Fifteen others have been admitted since Thursday, doctors said. By Thursday night, several children had been discharged after receiving treatment.

 

The kindergarten claimed that there was nothing wrong with the ingredients of the bean dish.

 

There are about 240 children in the kindergarten, but only 41 of them ate the bean dish, according to Shang. Classes are proceeding as usual for the other unaffected children.

 

Local education and health authorities are investigating the incident.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2006)