Dozens of children are hospitalized in Dagestan with signs of poisoning

Dozens of children in Dagestan have been hospitalized with signs of poisoning. According to local health officials, 42 children — including 36 preschoolers — were admitted to an infectious diseases hospital in Makhachkala with apparent acute intestinal infections. The children are reportedly in “moderately serious” condition and will remain under observation for the next week. 

Spokespeople for Dagestan’s Education Ministry told the news agency Interfax that doctors believe the children were either poisoned or caught in a rotavirus outbreak.

Mass poisonings are not rare in Dagestan, where water contamination is common, according to the news agency TASS. 

The health crisis in Dagestan wasn’t Russia’s only school incident this week. On October 5, more than a dozen students started experiencing dizziness and nausea after an assembly at a school in the Pskov region. Local detectives are treating the matter as a possible poisoning and investigating the school’s suppliers for violating health and safety standards, though local education officials say the children merely became overtired during the assembly’s “patriotic” speeches and music.