An outbreak of Bacillus cereus food poisoning in a school hostel, Klang

A food poisoning outbreak affected 114 female Malay students staying in a religious secondary school hostel in Klang. The students developed an illness mainly characterized by abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and giddiness. The median incubation period in this outbreak was 2.5 hours. Laboratory examination of suspected food revealed 2.3 X10^6 Bacillus cereus organisms per gram of fried noodles. B. cereus was determined as the probable cause of this outbreak and the fried. noodles the most likely vehicle for the organism. An outbreak of B. cereus food poisoning is being reported in Malaysia for the first time.