A total of 96 children have fallen ill in the Georgiyevsk District, of which 46 refused to be admitted to hospital, said Olga Yeremenko, a hospital doctor. None of the infection cases are critical, she said.
A preliminary probe carried out by Russia's consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, revealed that the infection may have been spread by kefir, a fermented milk drink, supplied to the kindergartens, under the Slavyanovsky brand. A criminal investigation has been launched.
In mid-August, a total of 123 children fell ill in the Stavropol Territory's Blagodarny town, in a separate food poisoning case.
Several mass food poisoning incidents have been registered at children's camps throughout Russia this summer.
In northwest Russia's Novgorod Region about 120 children and adults were infected with an intestinal bug earlier this month. In late June in the Sverdlovsk Region, in the Urals, about 40 people, including 33 children, were hospitalized with acute intestinal infection. In the same month, dysentery led to the hospitalization of 93 children and two adults at two summer camps in the Moscow Region.
