Mozambique - 75 people die after drinking poisoned beer - toxic bacteria found in the corn flour to blame

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56 people die after drinking poisoned beer in Mozambique

BY EMMANUEL CAMILLO
Associated PressJanuary 11, 2015 Updated 2 hours ago

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE — Contaminated traditional beer has killed 56 people in Mozambique, health authorities in the southern African country said on Sunday.

An additional 49 people were admitted to hospitals in the Chitima and Songo districts in the northeastern Tete province, and 146 more people have reported to hospitals to be examined for the poisoning, district health official Alex Albertini told Radio Mozambique.

Those who drank the contaminated brew were attending a funeral in the region on Saturday, Albertini said.

Pombe, a traditional Mozambican beer, is made from millet or corn flour. Authorities believe that the drink was poisoned with crocodile bile during the course of the funeral.
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Mosse told Radio Mozambique on Sunday that she expected the situation to worsen because the region did not have the necessary resources to deal with the disaster.
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http://www.macon.com/2015/01/11/3524287_52-people-die-after-drinking-poisoned.html?rh=1

 

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Bad beer kills at least 69 people in Mozambique

MAPUTO Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:54am EST

Jan 12 (Reuters) - At least 69 people died over the weekend in Mozambique after drinking home-brewed beer, a local government official told state television.
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"As we prepared to determine the cause of death of people we began to receive a lot of people with diarrhoea and other muscle aches. After that we began to receive dead bodies from several neighbourhoods," Paula Bernardo, the district director for Health, Women and Social Action, told the public broadcaster.

She said at least 169 remained in hospital. Samples of the brew and suspicious objects found inside the drum have been sent to the National Laboratory in the capital Maputo for testing.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/12/mozambique-beer-casualties-idUSL6N0UR2DO20150112

 

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Beer poisoned with crocodile bile kills 72 in Mozambique

USA TODAY NETWORK USA TODAY 10:57 a.m. EST January 13, 2015

The death toll continues to rise in Mozambique after people fell ill from drinking contaminated beer at a funeral over the weekend.

Seventy-two people have died from drinking the contaminated beer and 35 people remain hospitalized as of Tuesday according Paula Bernardo, director of health, women and social welfare in the northeastern Tete province, according to the Associated Press.

Originally 196 people were admitted to the hospital after drinking the home-brewed beer called Phombe on Friday. The traditional beer is brewed with millet or corn flour.

Officials believe the beer was poisoned with crocodile bile, according to the AP.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ted-beer-kills-dozens-in-mozambique/21684741/

 

[alert]

The suspicion that the poison is crocodile bile does not make sense and may have been discarded:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkro...lly-poisonous/

There is suspicion that "crocodile bile" is actually a local name for a toxic plant.

 

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Or the entire report of "crocodile bile" may be incorrect:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkro...-tainted-beer/ Crocodile Bile Expert Suspects Toxic Pesticide In Mozambique Tainted Beer Tragedy

The Zimbabwean pharmacologist who proved in the 1980s that crocodile bile is not poisonous says that any speculation on its involvement in the Mozambique beer tragedy is “nonsense.”
Norman Z. Nyazema, Ph.D., now a professor of pharmacology at the University of Limpopo in South Africa, told Forbes.com that he more likely suspects a common agricultural pesticide as the agent that has now killed 73 people in the villages of Chitima and Songo, Mozambique.

[snip]

?I went out to the crocodile farms to collect some of the stuff and ? lo and behold, you won?t believe it ? these guys in the crocodile farms were drying this stuff to send it to China because the Chinese think it is an aphrodisiac,? said Nyazema. ?Honestly ? and while we here are saying it is a poison!?

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14 Jan 2015

Probe into beer poisoning deaths in Mozambique assisted by UN

An investigation into the suspected poisoning and resulting deaths of people in a town in Mozambique's northeast Tete province is being assisted by the United Nations health agency.

According to reports, at least 70 people died after consuming contaminated beer at a funeral on Saturday.

A two-year old child and the woman who brewed the beer were among the dead.

More than 30 people are being treated in hospital.

Dr Ambrosio Disadidi is the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Mozambique.

"A joint team composed by the Ministry of Health, WHO and other ministries arrived in the city on the Sunday, January 11. A sample of the locally brewed alcoholic beverage, blood and urine samples were also collected and shipped to the national laboratory in Maputo and also to Portugal and South Africa laboratories." (25")

Dr Disadidi said autopsies have also been conducted and their results are being awaited.

Derrick Mbatha, United Nations


http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/en.../#.VLg71CvF-So

 

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Beer that killed 75 in Mozambique brewed with toxic flour

2015-11-04 14:22

Maputo - A homemade beer that killed 75 drinkers at a funeral in Mozambique earlier this year was brewed with contaminated flour, health authorities said Wednesday, ruling out deliberate poisoning.

Hundreds of people drank the beer, with dozens found dead in their homes later in the day and others rushed to a local hospital with diarrhoea and severe muscle aches.

A total of 232 people were affected, and 75 died in the incident in the village of Chitima in the northwest of Mozambique.

"The victims were poisoned by the homemade beer which had been contaminated by a toxic bacteria found in the corn flour used to brew it," Ilesh Jani, director of Mozambique's Health Institute, told reporters.

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http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/B...Mozambique-brewed-with-toxic-flour-20151104-5