At the Department of Gastroenterology, Thanh Nhan Hospital, the number of patients admitted to the hospital for digestive and liver and bile diseases increased.
Typically, a 40-year-old male patient (Hanoi) has had hepatitis B for nearly 10 years but has not abstained from alcohol. According to his family, the patient drank about 500ml of white alcohol, a type of alcohol about 35 degrees, purchased from a facility supplying in the area. When there was no alcohol, the patient was often tired, irritable, and showed signs of dependence. Recently, the patient developed exhaustion, vomiting blood, abdominal distension and was taken to the emergency room by his family. Test results showed that the liver was seriously damaged, and fibroid plaques progressed rapidly.
BSCKII Doan Hoai Linh - Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Thanh Nhan Hospital - said that after holidays and Tet, the number of cases related to the digestive system always increases compared to normal days, most of which are patients abusing alcohol and beer. It is noteworthy that although the number of alcoholics has not increased sharply, many young patients, only about 30 years old, have contracted hepatitis B or severe liver damage due to drinking a lot of alcohol and beer.
Not only causing liver damage, alcohol of unknown origin also poses a serious risk of poisoning. The Poison Control Center, Bach Mai Hospital, has just received 6 patients in a state of severe respiratory and metabolic disorders, including 2 cases of optic nerve damage due to methanol poisoning.
According to Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen - Director of the Poison Control Center, the cause stemmed from a family party with 11 attendees. Among them, 7 people drank about 5 liters of herbal self-fermented alcohol provided by acquaintances and were introduced as "alcohol of origin". The next morning, the victims showed symptoms of blurred vision, dizziness, dizziness, shortness of breath; one person died before being taken to the emergency room.
Test results showed that methanol levels in the blood of patients ranged from 44.6 to 256.9mg/dL. In particular, the alcohol sample used contained up to 30.3% methanol, while the ethanol content only accounted for 1.84%.
Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen affirmed that this is fake alcohol, mixed from industrial methanol alcohol, not rice alcohol or traditional alcohol. The mortality rate from methanol poisoning in Vietnam is currently very high, about 30% even when treated at specialized facilities and can reach 50% in remote and isolated areas. More dangerously, blindness and coma due to methanol are easily confused with stroke, leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment.
Methanol is an extremely toxic substance, colorless, smelly and difficult to distinguish from ethanol. Initially, people who drink it can get drunk like regular alcohol, but after 8 - 48 hours, methanol is converted into formic acid, causing severe metabolic acidosis, brain damage, optic nerve damage, respiratory disorders and can be fatal if not treated promptly.
From the increasing situation of liver disease and alcohol poisoning after each holiday and Tet, it continues to raise the requirement to tighten the management of handicraft alcohol, alcohol of unknown origin, and at the same time raise awareness of alcohol and beer use in the community. Early detection of abnormal signs and changing alcohol consumption habits is a key factor to reduce the risk of serious complications, protect people's health and limit unfortunate consequences.
