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Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017

BACKGROUND: Methanol, an industrial solvent, can cause illness and death if ingested. In June 2017, the Uganda Ministry of Health was notified of a cluster of deaths which occurred after drinking alcohol. We investigated to determine the cause of outbreak, identify risk factors, and recommend eviden...

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Autores principales: Doreen, Birungi, Eyu, Patricia, Okethwangu, Denis, Biribawa, Claire, Kizito, Susan, Nakanwagi, Miriam, Nguna, Joyce, Nkonwa, Innocent H., Opio, Denis N., Aceng, Freda L., Alitubeera, Phoebe H., Kadobera, Daniel, Kwesiga, Benon, Bulage, Lilian, Ario, Alex R., Zhu, Bao-Ping
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7204301/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32405303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/5816162
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author Doreen, Birungi
Eyu, Patricia
Okethwangu, Denis
Biribawa, Claire
Kizito, Susan
Nakanwagi, Miriam
Nguna, Joyce
Nkonwa, Innocent H.
Opio, Denis N.
Aceng, Freda L.
Alitubeera, Phoebe H.
Kadobera, Daniel
Kwesiga, Benon
Bulage, Lilian
Ario, Alex R.
Zhu, Bao-Ping
author_facet Doreen, Birungi
Eyu, Patricia
Okethwangu, Denis
Biribawa, Claire
Kizito, Susan
Nakanwagi, Miriam
Nguna, Joyce
Nkonwa, Innocent H.
Opio, Denis N.
Aceng, Freda L.
Alitubeera, Phoebe H.
Kadobera, Daniel
Kwesiga, Benon
Bulage, Lilian
Ario, Alex R.
Zhu, Bao-Ping
author_sort Doreen, Birungi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Methanol, an industrial solvent, can cause illness and death if ingested. In June 2017, the Uganda Ministry of Health was notified of a cluster of deaths which occurred after drinking alcohol. We investigated to determine the cause of outbreak, identify risk factors, and recommend evidence-based control measures. METHODS: We defined a probable case as acute loss of eyesight and ≥1 of the following symptoms: profuse sweating, vomiting, dizziness, or loss of consciousness in a resident of either Nabweru or Nangabo Subcounty from 1 to 30 June 2017. In a case-control study, we compared exposures of case-patients and controls selected among asymptomatic neighbors who drank alcohol and matched by age and sex. We collected alcohol samples from implicated bars and wholesaler X for testing. RESULTS: We identified 15 cases; 12 (80%) died. Among case-patients, 12 (80%) were men; the median age was 43 (range: 23–66) years. Thirteen (87%) of 15 case-patients and 15 (25%) of 60 controls last drank a locally distilled alcohol at one of the three bars supplied by wholesaler X (OR(M-H) = 15; 95% CI: 2.3–106). We found that alcohol sellers sometimes added methanol to drinking alcohol to increase their profit margin. Among the 10 alcohol samples from wholesaler X, the mean methanol content (1200 mg/L, range: 77–2711 mg/L) was 24 times higher than the safe level. CONCLUSION: This outbreak was caused by drinking a locally distilled alcohol adulterated with methanol from wholesaler X. We recommended enforcing existing laws governing alcohol manufacture and sale. We recommended timely intravenous administration of ethanol to methanol poisoning victims.
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spelling pubmed-72043012020-05-13 Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017 Doreen, Birungi Eyu, Patricia Okethwangu, Denis Biribawa, Claire Kizito, Susan Nakanwagi, Miriam Nguna, Joyce Nkonwa, Innocent H. Opio, Denis N. Aceng, Freda L. Alitubeera, Phoebe H. Kadobera, Daniel Kwesiga, Benon Bulage, Lilian Ario, Alex R. Zhu, Bao-Ping J Environ Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Methanol, an industrial solvent, can cause illness and death if ingested. In June 2017, the Uganda Ministry of Health was notified of a cluster of deaths which occurred after drinking alcohol. We investigated to determine the cause of outbreak, identify risk factors, and recommend evidence-based control measures. METHODS: We defined a probable case as acute loss of eyesight and ≥1 of the following symptoms: profuse sweating, vomiting, dizziness, or loss of consciousness in a resident of either Nabweru or Nangabo Subcounty from 1 to 30 June 2017. In a case-control study, we compared exposures of case-patients and controls selected among asymptomatic neighbors who drank alcohol and matched by age and sex. We collected alcohol samples from implicated bars and wholesaler X for testing. RESULTS: We identified 15 cases; 12 (80%) died. Among case-patients, 12 (80%) were men; the median age was 43 (range: 23–66) years. Thirteen (87%) of 15 case-patients and 15 (25%) of 60 controls last drank a locally distilled alcohol at one of the three bars supplied by wholesaler X (OR(M-H) = 15; 95% CI: 2.3–106). We found that alcohol sellers sometimes added methanol to drinking alcohol to increase their profit margin. Among the 10 alcohol samples from wholesaler X, the mean methanol content (1200 mg/L, range: 77–2711 mg/L) was 24 times higher than the safe level. CONCLUSION: This outbreak was caused by drinking a locally distilled alcohol adulterated with methanol from wholesaler X. We recommended enforcing existing laws governing alcohol manufacture and sale. We recommended timely intravenous administration of ethanol to methanol poisoning victims. Hindawi 2020-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7204301/ /pubmed/32405303 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/5816162 Text en Copyright © 2020 Birungi Doreen et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Doreen, Birungi
Eyu, Patricia
Okethwangu, Denis
Biribawa, Claire
Kizito, Susan
Nakanwagi, Miriam
Nguna, Joyce
Nkonwa, Innocent H.
Opio, Denis N.
Aceng, Freda L.
Alitubeera, Phoebe H.
Kadobera, Daniel
Kwesiga, Benon
Bulage, Lilian
Ario, Alex R.
Zhu, Bao-Ping
Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017
title Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017
title_full Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017
title_fullStr Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017
title_full_unstemmed Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017
title_short Fatal Methanol Poisoning Caused by Drinking Adulterated Locally Distilled Alcohol: Wakiso District, Uganda, June 2017
title_sort fatal methanol poisoning caused by drinking adulterated locally distilled alcohol: wakiso district, uganda, june 2017
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7204301/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32405303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/5816162
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