Food poisoning claimed three inmates of a care home within a week in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, the Health Department has confirmed.

The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) under the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) has officially recorded these deaths in the database. Officially recorded food poisoning deaths are rare in Kerala, although reports about such deaths surface often. According to the Assembly figures furnished by the Health Minister in 2024, only four deaths were scientifically proven as caused by food poisoning in the past eight years in Kerala.

As per the IDSP database, two women, aged 42 and 50, died at a care home in Kadavoor village in Paingottoor panchayat in Kothamangalam taluk on December 27 and 29, 2025. Another woman, 43, died on January 3. Dr Sheeja A L, District Medical Officer, Ernakulam, said that as many as 22 inmates were infected. The care home houses 140 people who are psychiatric patients.

"We couldn't find pathogen presence in stool culture. The health department was alerted about the outbreak after the first death. We suspect that cake and meat dishes given to the inmates by other people or catering agencies during Christmas led to the infection. There weren't enough samples for testing. All of them had clear symptoms. We have heightened the vigil and currently the outbreak has been contained. The surveillance and follow-up actions are underway," said Dr Sheeja.

The officials with the Family Health Centre, Kadavoor, who attended the cases initially, said that water samples from the well and the pond were collected. "We have strictly warned the care home against receiving food from third parties. Samples from pond water contained the presence of bacteria. The care home office-bearers said that they use only well water for cooking. All those patients who died had co-morbidities," said Dr Jayalekhsmi, Medical Officer, FHC, Kadavoor.

The care home representatives were sceptical of the findings of the Health Department. "As far as we know, only two deaths occurred due to food poisoning. We are in the dark about the exact source of infection. The health department has not given us a proper explanation. We don't know why they marked three deaths as due to food poisoning. We have been directed to get a registration from the food safety department," said Mathappan, Managing Trustee of the care home.

The patients died at the Medical College Hospitals in Kottayam and Ernakulam. With the authorities being unable to collect enough samples for a detailed examination, there has not been a plausible explanation about the kind of food that caused the infection. Villagers said that it is a common practice in the neighbourhood to donate food to the care home for the inmates. There may be chances that the food so given could have become stale, causing infection.

Mathappan, however, said that several others also consumed food received from outside during Christmas but they didn't develop symptoms. "We have been running this home for three decades. This is the first time that such an incident has been reported. Two of the inmates who died had been with us for over a decade," he said.

Officials with the district health surveillance said that in the wake of food poisoning deaths at the care home, surveillance has been strengthened in similar institutions in the district.