44 soldiers hospitalized due to food poisoning in Turkey’s Gaziantep

İstanbul, Dec 27 (DHA) - A total of 44 Turkish soldiers were hospitalized after getting food poisoning in the southeastern province of Gaziantep late on Monday.

The Health Ministry informed that 41 of them were discharged from the Islahiye State Hospital after receiving treatment.

"Following the evening meal, the soldiers were taken under treatment after complaints of nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and fever. The results show that there is no one with life-threatening condition. Some 41 of the 44 patients were discharged. Three patients who are awaiting their results and whose treatments are continuing are being monitored by the emergency services.

More than four tons of horse meat was found in canned foods bought for the Turkish Naval Forces Command in 2015, Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli had said recently.

The discovered meat was never served, Canikli stressed.

He was responding to a written parliamentary question from main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Istanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu submitted to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, following allegations about the navy buying rotten meat and horse meat at the Gölcük Fleet Command in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.

Canikli said 12.5 tons of canned meat was bought for the naval forces in 2015 and horse meat was determined in 4.05 tons of it, prompting the ministry to cancel the deal with the food company and file a complaint on the issue.

The incident comes after a series of similar cases of apparent food poisoning at barracks across Turkey.

A total of 87 soldiers at a military barracks in the southwestern resort district of Marmaris were hospitalized in the Aegean province of Muğla over a period of three days after suffering from nausea and vomiting, on June 29.

On June 17, some 731 soldiers in the First Infantry Training Brigade Command in the Aegean province of Manisa were hospitalized late following suspected food poisoning. The catering firm's contract with the barracks was subsequently cancelled, while a number of employees of the company were arrested.