This is a 31-year-old man who lived in the municipality of Ribeira do Pombal, a municipality in the interior of the state where the contamination occurred
A Bahia State Department of Health (Sesab) confirmed this Saturday (3) that one of the seven victims poisoned by in the interior of the State, he died last Friday (2). This is a 31-year-old man who lived in the municipality of Ribeira do Pombal, a municipality in the interior of the State where the contamination occurred. He and six other people became ill after consuming alcoholic beverages contaminated with the substance during an engagement party.
The death was confirmed by the Couto Maia Institute, in Salvador, where the most serious patients were transferred. According to Sesab, four of the poisoning victims received assistance from the municipality’s own health network and have already been discharged, while three, in a more serious condition, were sent to the hospital in the capital of Bahia. In addition to the dead man, the other two patients remain hospitalized.
The victims were hospitalized on Monday (29) after presenting symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, dizziness, feeling faint, shortness of breath and blurred vision. According to the secretariat, a technical examination found the presence of methanol in distilled drinks consumed by the victims. Furthermore, “laboratory analysis confirmed the presence of methanol in the patients’ blood samples.”
The ministry said that, together with the Municipal Health Department of Ribeira do Pombal, it “immediately adopted the protocol” recommended by the Ministry of Health for cases of this type.
In light of the episode in Bahia, the Ministry of Health said that on Wednesday, the 31st, it reinforced Bahia’s stock by sending another hundred units of the antidote medopizole, used to reverse methanol poisoning. “With the new shipment, the state network has already received 318 ampoules of ethanol and 206 units of medopizole,” said the ministry, in a note.
The ministry also said that all states are supplied with the necessary inputs to treat the condition and that “it monitors notifications of methanol poisoning throughout the country and maintains active monitoring with the states through the Center for Strategic Information on Health Surveillance (CIEVS)”.
According to the federal agency, 74 cases of methanol poisoning have been confirmed in Brazil to date, with 25 deaths.
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo
