The Food Safety Department received information from the Poison Control Center (Bach Mai Hospital) about 5 emergency cases being treated at the center due to methanol poisoning, including 1 case from Thai Nguyen and 4 cases from Thai Nguyen. from Thuong Tin district, Hanoi drinking a type of wine from Thai Nguyen.
Accordingly, on July 23, the Poison Control Center (Bach Mai Hospital) received 4 cases of industrial methanol poisoning after drinking alcohol at a wedding.
About 2 days before admission, 4 patients drank alcohol at a wedding in Thuong Tin district, Hanoi. After drinking alcohol, patients show signs of extreme fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, and shaking limbs. Some patients have difficulty breathing.
At the wedding feast, the 5 people who drank the most alcohol had to be hospitalized. One of them died before entering the hospital. All 5 people drank 2-3 meals of alcohol at the wedding, but the afternoon meal of July 21 was the most they drank.
The 4 patients mentioned above were hospitalized with headaches, blurred vision, very severe metabolic acidosis, and very high methanol levels in the blood. Besides eye damage, four patients were also at risk of brain damage.
Test results of the alcohol samples the patients drank at the wedding showed that the industrial alcohol concentration of methanol was 34%. Meanwhile, with regular wine, the ethanol concentration is only 14%.
On July 24, the Department of Food Safety sent an official dispatch to the Department of Health of Hanoi and the Department of Health of Thai Nguyen province urgently implementing a number of contents:
Thai Nguyen Department of Health coordinated with the Department of Industry and Trade of Thai Nguyen province to immediately stop circulation of alcohol products suspected of causing poisoning and local authorities to trace the origin of alcohol products suspected of causing poisoning. poisoning in the above incident, detect and strictly handle violations of food safety according to regulations (if any).
The Hanoi Department of Health coordinated with the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade to investigate and prevent the use and circulation of the above alcohol products in the area.
Coordinate with the Department of Industry and Trade and relevant authorities in the area to strengthen inspection, examination and supervision of food safety for alcohol production and trading establishments, focusing on production and trading establishments. Small wine businesses, especially craft winemaking establishments; Promptly prevent unsafely produced and mixed wines, wines of unknown origin, and unlabeled wines that pose risks to consumers' health from being circulated on the market...
