Brazil’s Health Minister Alexandre Padilha said on Tuesday (Sept. 30) that he ordered the immediate notification of new suspected cases of methanol poisoning.
Since early September, ten cases have been confirmed, including three deaths—all in the state of São Paulo. The poisoning was reported after consuming beverages contaminated with the product, which is highly toxic to humans.
“This immediate notification is a direct channel to what we call CIEVS [Centro de Informações Estratégicas em Vigilância em Saúde] in each of the states. The ministry monitors this work daily,” he stated.
“[We are doing this] so that we can understand more quickly what is happening in the state of São Paulo—and also to identify in other states in the country any kind of growth and abnormal clinical and epidemiological phenomenon, in addition to the investigations conducted by the Federal Police and the Ministry of Justice,” he declared.
In a press conference alongside Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, Padilha noted that notification must be made for any suspected case of methanol poisoning. “It is not necessary to wait for diagnostic confirmation to make the notification,” he added.
“[This applies to] any person who seeks medical care reporting signs and symptoms with a history of alcohol consumption, especially alcohol of unknown origin. It is not something they bought and opened at home, where they saw the seal. It is generally in a commercial environment outside the home, a party at someone else’s house, or a recreational setting. This is already a suspected case and must be notified,” he observed.
The Justice Minister said he asked the Federal Police to open an investigation into the origin of the beverage and a possible methanol distribution network linked to organized crime.
“At the moment, the incidents are concentrated in the state of São Paulo, but everything indicates that the distribution goes beyond the state of São Paulo, so […] it falls to the Federal Police,” the minister said at the press conference.
Numbers
According to the Health Minister, just one month registered half of the methanol poisoning cases recorded annually in the public health network.
“When we look at the month of August, we have 17 notified cases of suspected methanol poisoning. In some cases, the investigation is being concluded. If we take August and September, we have more or less what would happen in the whole year—20 notified cases. And they are concentrated in just one state.”
“We are facing an abnormal situation, different from everything we have seen in our time series,” he continued.
Source: Agência Brasil