Since eight in the morning dozens of infants with abdominal pain, diarrhea, unstoppable vomiting and stormy headaches began to fill all the hospitals that in 1967 there was in Tijuana.
The first to launch the alert of this health contingency were the doctors of civil hospital and the Red Crosswho asked the authorities to find out as soon as possible with the infection focuswhatever it was, to avoid a mass death of people.
A child under the age of seven, the first to die
But when public officials were just realizing the dimension of what was happening, the first death occurred, that of a seven-year-old girl named Silvia, then Eduardo, 10, María de Jesús, nine, and later Jovita de eight. Thus, before noon, they added 17 deceased children.
Infants, adolescents and adults continued to arrive non-stop at the public clinics and private Tijuana in search of saving their lives, to the bewilderment of the authorities who, after express interviews with the relatives of the dead children, found that they all had breakfast in common bread with milk.
Prohibit the sale of milk and bread in Tijuana
With this first indication, the authorities gave the order to suspend the sale of the dairy in any establishment in Tijuana, they ordered to close all the bakeries of the region and suspended classes.
They sent to Sacramento Department of Agriculture Yet the Health Secretary in Mexico City samples taken from the deceased and sick patients, as well as an impressive amount of bread and milk. By that time the entire population of Tijuana had already panicked.
Parathion, powerful insecticide behind the deaths
Within a few hours the results were ready. They found that the bread consumed by the 17 dead children, as well as by the more than 150 intoxicated people, had been made with flour and sugar contaminated with Parathiona powerful insecticide that years later would be banned.
They discovered that all the contaminated bread came from a clandestine bakery located in the backyard of a house in the Liberty colony, which produced 3,500 pieces a day that it distributed throughout Tijuana. When questioned, the owner reported that days before his workers presented Headaches Y vomiting during the performance of your job.
Flour and sugar came from Hermosillo and Sinaloa
He also revealed that the 300 sacks of flour Y sugar I had bought them in the Flour Mill San LuisLocated in the Tijuana downtownan establishment that bought said items in hermosillo Y sinaloa.
The owner of the store was apprehended, but released shortly after because she showed that she did not contaminate the sacks, but rather those in charge of transporting them, who during the journey would have sprayed them with the deadly insecticide to avoid pests.
The one who was imprisoned, although only for a few days, was the baker, but not for the deaths of the 17 children and the countless sick people, but for having a clandestine bakery.
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