The Prosecutor General’s Office is monitoring the case of poisoning of children in the Tashkent region

The Prosecutor General’s Office has established a working group to investigate the mass poisoning in Tashkent’s kindergartens, the press service of the department reports.

For a thorough, complete, and high-quality investigation, the case has been taken under the control of the Prosecutor General’s Office. A special working group has also been formed under the leadership of the First Deputy Prosecutor General, Bahriddin Valiyev. During the investigation, a full medical examination of all preschool children was organized.

Currently, there are no seriously ill or critically ill children among the children who received medical care, and the situation is under the full control of doctors, — the statement said.

To prevent such cases from recurring, the prosecutor’s office has organized a study of the situation regarding the supply of food products based on outsourcing agreements to all state kindergartens. The investigation is ongoing, and further information will be provided to the public through the mass media.

According to the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee Nurmat Otabekov, as of 12:00 on September 29, 38 children remain in hospitals. He emphasized that they will also be discharged soon. Parents are regularly provided with information about their children’s health status.

Recall that the incident occurred on September 24. In the Piskent, Buka, Bekabad, Kuyichirchik, and Akkurgan districts of the Tashkent region, they complained about mass poisoning of children in kindergartens. The Department of Internal Affairs announced the start of the investigation. The poisoning could have been caused by poor quality kefir with a fat content of 3.2%, which was produced in the Akkurgan district.

Later it became known that the mass poisoning affected another district of the Tashkent region — the Lower Chirchik district. A criminal case has been initiated under Article 257-1, Part 1 (Violation of sanitary legislation or epidemic control regulations). Initial investigative actions are being carried out. The perpetrators face up to 5 years in prison.

On September 25, the Minister of Preschool and School Education, Ezoza Karimova, and Deputy Minister Azizbek Turdiyev visited preschool institutions in the Quyichirchiq, Oqqurg’on, Pskent, and Buka districts to assess the situation. There were reports that more than a hundred children were hospitalized.

On September 26th, the total number of affected children reached 1,400. 413 children in Okkurgan district, 537 kindergarten children in Buka district, 430 children in Pskent district, 64 children in Kuyichirchik district, 98 children in Bekabad district, 285 children in Almalyk district, and 113 children in Nurafshon district came to the hospitals with complaints of food poisoning.

Members of the “Adolat” faction took control of the situation and sent a parliamentary inquiry to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to clarify what measures are being taken to resolve the situation. The deputies created a working group, which included representatives of the parliament and local councils.

On September 27, Nurmat Otabekov, a representative of the Committee for Sanitary-Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health, commented on the mass poisoning incident. A special task force has been established under the Ministry of Health. The children’s diagnosis was disclosed: acute gastroenteritis, which is typically caused by rotaviruses or intestinal bacteria.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies detained seven people involved in the poisoning of children. Three of the detainees are heads of a food industry enterprise. Another four people are heads of outsourcing companies that supplied food products to kindergartens. The case was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The press service of the Children’s Ombudsman’s Office issued a statement regarding the need to review the control over the child nutrition sector in schools and kindergartens amid the incident. It was reported that it is necessary to eliminate corruption risks by minimizing the human factor when concluding contracts for the provision of food services for children.

On September 28, the First Deputy Chairman of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health Committee, Nurmat Atabekov, reported that another 182 children who were poisoned in kindergartens remain in hospitals. In total, according to Atabekov, more than 960 children were hospitalized.