Ignorance Causes Deaths of Children

Just one example: Five children die in Bihar after eating holy offerings Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:31am IST PATNA, India (Reuters) - Five children have died and 96 other people have fallen seriously ill in Bihar after eating sweets and rice offered to a goddess at a village shrine, health officials said on Friday. Children in Isua village, in Bihar, fell sick on Thursday during a festival to mark the full moon shortly after eating the temple offerings, known as prasad, made to Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning. "The children began vomiting and falling on the ground senseless," Ramvilas Ranjan, a health official in the district, said by telephone. The dead children were between 4 and 7 years old. Most of those taken sick are also children. Ranjan thinks it was probably food poisoning. Villagers told him the food had been kept in a store room for ten days. Tests are being done on the prasad. In a similar incident in 2004, 11 children died after eating prasad at a different village temple in Bihar. ********************************************************************************** What kind of training and background in health care does "health official Ranjan" have? How could ANYONE let ANYONE eat food offerings that have sat around for 10 days? I wouldn't eat food out of my refrigerator that was in there for 10 days (except some condiments, some types of cheese, and eggs). How much more so contaminated would food be from a "store room" - stored under undisclosed conditions, but I take leave to doubt under conditions akin to modern refrigeration. OHMYGODDESS!