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Kebab poisoning hits 160
By Lee Glendinning, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 09.03.05
The shop at the centre of the outbreak. .
More than 160 people who ate at a kebab house were struck down by a potentially deadly bug in a massive food poisoning scare.
Many needed urgent hospital treatment after being infected with salmonella.
And they have launched a compensation battle against the owners after spending weeks in hospital following the outbreak.
Health experts said today the infection was the biggest outbreak of salmonella in Britain for three years, with 160 people found to be suffering from food poisoning. Of those, about 60 have been confirmed as salmonella cases.
Staff at the A&E department of Newham Hospital were so overwhelmed by the outbreak they instigated emergency procedures to deal with the number of patients, redirecting ambulances to other hospitals to ease the pressure and reduce risks of infection.
One man is in hospital after almost a month, while many others have yet to return to work after being infected.
The victims were customers at A1 Kebabish in Manor Park. Three members of the restaurant's staff also fell ill.
The kebab house was closed down while it was investigated. It has since reopened. The North East London Health Protection Unit confirmed A1 Kebabish was the source, although officers have still not disclosed the actual food that caused the outbreak.
Nitin Majevadia, 33, an IT manager from Manor Park, lost more than a stone in weight in three days and has had three weeks off work to recover after eating food from A1 Kebabish.
"I had the spatchcock chicken and chickpea potato curry after finishing a late shift at work," he said. "I then woke up at 2am with severe abdominal pain.
"By the third or fourth time it happened I started to feel really scared. Then the severe muscle pains started.
"I couldn't walk upright, I got a cab to the hospital. As soon as I got there, they said: 'You haven't had a kebab at A1 Kebabish by any chance?' Sitting down in emergency, everyone there was bent over being sick into paper dishes ... I was genuinely frightened.''
Software consultant Javed Din, 33, who ate with Mr Majevadia on the same night, needed to be resuscitated in hospital and was kept in isolation for five days. He has been off work for four weeks.
"I woke at around 4am and started vomiting and all the other unpleasantness that goes with it. By 3pm the next day I collapsed in my flat and had to call an ambulance.
" In the hospital I was unconscious and had to be taken into the resuscitation room,'' he said. "I have had two weeks of liquid food ... it's the most painful experience I have ever been through.''
Ian Walker, a partner in Russell Jones & Walker, King's Cross, the solicitors dealing with the claim, said: "I am not aware of any other incident in recent history where a single business has poisoned so many people.
"As far as the claimants are concerned, there was clearly something desperately wrong with either the hygiene or the food itself which allowed bacteria develop."
Bosses at A1 Kebabish said they were awaiting a final report from environmental health officers but were confident their food was safe. Manager Mohammed Akhlaq said he thought the bug might have come from eggs or yoghurt, but that staff were just as baffled as the customers. "We want to close this chapter now."
A Newham council spokesman said environmental health officers were monitoring the situation and say the premises "do not pose an imminent health risk under food safety legislation".
