In recent days, incidents of food poisoning on Chinese school campuses have been frequent. The topic of “collective diarrhea” at Binzhou Vocational College in Shandong Province once again sparked attention online.
On October 16th, a blogger named “Seeing Binzhou” posted that the topic of “collective diarrhea” at Binzhou Vocational College in Shandong Province had been circulating online. Many students of the school complained online about collective diarrhea and suspected it was related to the drinking water and food in the dormitories. Some students reported that the sewage in the dormitories had an unpleasant smell, causing many students to store bottled water. Some severely affected students even had to go to hospitals or clinics to receive intravenous drips.
Students noticed that the school had sampled the water for investigation, but as of that day, they had not publicly reported any relevant information. Parents of students expressed their concerns on social media platforms.
According to comments left by some parents on social media, “My son is in this school, he has been sick for three days, it costs 160 yuan a day, I heard that many students have diarrhea.” “My child is also experiencing this, vomiting and diarrhea, we have spent over a thousand yuan already, and they are still receiving intravenous drips, leaders must pay attention to the children and save our kids.”
A student even posted a photo of receiving intravenous therapy stating, “I’m still on the drip.”
Regarding the cause of the incident, some parents mentioned, “I heard that it was due to a septic tank explosion.” Photos shared by parents showed that the tap water in the school’s dormitories was as dirty as muddy water, making it undrinkable. A student revealed that the school “took water samples for testing, took samples from water on August 27, told us there was no problem with the water after testing, if there’s a problem, it’s ridiculous, we haven’t even started school, do they think we are fools?!”
On October 17th, the Binzhou Municipal Joint Task Force reported that on October 14th, students at Binzhou Vocational College began to experience vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Testing found the presence of norovirus in the feces and rectal swabs of the cases. As of now, a total of 413 people have sought medical treatment, with 17 of them hospitalized for “mild symptoms.” Currently, relevant departments are tracing the cause and conducting focused disinfection in key areas.
The official report has raised doubts online. According to netizens, “All experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, acid reflux, fever, and it’s considered mild symptoms? Tears.” “If these are mild, then what would be considered severe?”
Netizens criticized, “The water quality is poor, water and feces are mixed, and they are not rectifying it, but rather blocking information.” “When sharing videos to complain, they are accused of being influenced by foreign forces.” “Both sides are blaming each other! The involved parties have strong connections, giving bribes and deceiving, this is how dark Binzhou is.”
Such poisoning incidents have been occurring frequently on campuses, and there have been several cases since the start of the fall semester this year. For example, on September 11th, 94 students from the elementary section of Hua Mei Experimental School in Puning, Guangdong Province were officially reported to have been hospitalized due to food poisoning; on September 12th, 138 teachers and students from Chaoyang Yucai Middle School in Yanzhou District, Jining City, Shandong Province were hospitalized due to food poisoning; on September 1st, Shenyang Normal University was exposed to a collective poisoning incident, with an official report of 2087 people experiencing vomiting and diarrhea, as well as gastrointestinal symptoms.
Netizens couldn’t help but lament, “Why haven’t we heard of any institution canteen being poisoned?”