People poisoned in East Georgian region

About 200 people were poisoned during a wedding feast in Georgia’s eastern Marneuli municipality late on August 29.

All of them were hospitalised.

Georgia’s Prime Minister, the Health Minister and local officials visited the patients at the hospital.

There are 28 children among them, and 21 remain in hospital.

The patients have been transported to two different clinics of Marneuli, as well as to hospitals in Rustavi, Bolnisi and Tbilisi.

Their health condition is stable according to doctors.

As preliminarily reported, the people were poisoned by meat or cold drinks.

Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said it was important that the relevant state bodies to timely investigate and reveal the reasons behind the mass poisoning.

Georgia’s Food Safety Agency has already started an investigation into the issue.

It is not the first time that food and drinks has caused mass food poisoning in Georgia.

Individual measures against such cases and punishing one or two individuals or companies will never bring genuine outcomes.

Relevant control over food and drink produce still remains as a problem. Food poisoning can easily lead to fatalities.

Georgia has practically turned into a market of low–quality products, and together with the high-rate of air pollution, the health of the people is at risk.

People breathe polluted air and eat low quality and harmful food, which is one of the major reasons Georgia’s hospitals are overcrowded.

Each Government has failed to somehow settle these two very serious problems, when gradually people feel the strong effects of these issues.

Georgia needs stronger policies in terms of food and environmental issues as they are related to one of the fundamental human rights – the right to life.