Takjil Menu Poisoning At The Jodog Bantul Area Mosque, Health Office Investigates Epidemiologically

Illustration. Break the fast of eating takjil kurma and laukpauk rice at the Muhammad Cheng Ho Mosque, Surabaya, East Java, Tuesday, April 13, 2021). (Between-Moch Asim-aww)

JAKARTA - The Bantul Health Office (Dinkes) conducted an epidemiological investigation into the alleged poisoning of the takjil menu or iftar at one of the mosques in the Jodog Hamlet area, Pandak District, Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region (DIY).

"We are still in the process of conducting an epidemiological investigation into the alleged takjil menu poisoning case in the Jodog area of Pandak District," said Bantul Health Office Head Agus Tri Widiyantara when confirmed in Bantul, Tuesday, March 18, as reported by Antara.

According to him, his party had received a report from the Pandak Public Health Center (Puskesmas) regarding the existence of people who complained of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea after eating iftar at the mosque in the Jodog area on Monday, March 17.

Based on the report, the Bantul Health Office together with a team from the Pandak Health Center immediately dispatched a health team to track down and investigate epidemiology, in order to determine the exact cause of the complaints felt by the community.

"If we get new information yesterday -Monday afternoon-, and it has been followed up from friends from the puskesmas, if their information is from a joint open event at a mosque in Jodog on Saturday, March 15," he said.

He explained that so far there have been 10 local residents undergoing outpatient treatment at the Pandak 1 Health Center, and 11 residents undergoing outpatient treatment at the Srandakan Islamic University Hospital (UII).

"But, there are those who do not carry out the examination. And at this time, we are still carrying out the tracking process of the case. Because from the data we got, it is suspected that they have various poisonings, some from children to adults," he said.

Currently, his party is also trying to collect remaining food samples for laboratory tests at the Yogyakarta Health Laboratory and Calibration Center, to find out the source or main cause of the alleged poisoning experienced by Jodog residents.

"So, we don't know what they consume yet, because our friends are still collecting the remaining samples of food. It seems that there are indeed several types of food and drinks consumed by them," he said.

However, he said, based on the analysis of similar cases that have existed, the main source or cause of the poisoning case occurred due to the contamination of germs in the food and food consumed.

"We don't dare to conclude yet, but usually if there are germs like this in the food, that's the most frequent. Maybe contaminated, there are ingredients that have been contaminated with germs, it can be from the water, maybe from foodstuffs," he said.