Probe underway to determine cause of food poisoning

KUALA LUMPUR: The authorities are investigating what caused a bout of food poisoning involving 16 Malaysian Sea Games athletes across various sports.

However, Southeast Asian Games Federation president Tan Sri Tunku Imran Tuanku Jaafar said only one of them was warded at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, and was discharged yesterday.

The Malaysian contingent is based at a leading hotel in Jalan Ampang.

Tunku Imran, who is also president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), said officials from the Malaysia Organising Committee, Kuala Lumpur City Hall, Health Ministry and National Sports Institute were looking into the incident.

He did not rule out the possibility that the incident could have been caused by outside food consumed by the athletes.

“The menus are standardised in all hotels… It is an athlete’s menu, and it depends on the sport and dietary requirement of the athletes.”

Host Malaysia has a 1,234strong contingent, including 844 athletes, in the 29th edition of the Games from Aug 19 to 30.

OCM secretary-general Datuk Low Beng Choo said details on the matter could be released only after receiving a full report from the authorities.

“It is a bit difficult to identify the source (of the food poisoning) because the athletes represent different sports and go to different venues. That is why we want to be careful, as we do not know the source yet.”

On another matter, Tunku Imran said those in charge of security should be more vigilant at events where tensions and the likelihood of unruly crowd behaviour were high.

“We will look at tightening security. Those in charge of overseeing security should be more vigilant at these events. Inappropriate signs should be confiscated if possible.”

On reported KL2017 transport issues, he said: “We know that transportation has not been perfect, it could be better and should be better.”

He said transport problems were not uncommon in multisports events, including the Olympics. Bernama