Thailand: Bamboo shoots poisoning patients are still serious

On March 23, the 17 most severe patients in the poisoning case of bamboo shoots in Nan province (Thailand) were taken to Bangkok. Currently, all patients must breathe by artificial respirators .

The rescue team accompanied the patient to the plane to Bangkok. (Photo: Reuters) Recently, 161 villagers in the province of Nan (northern Thailand) got sick after eating salted bamboo shoots at a festival.

Thai health workers believe that the disease in Nan province is due to poor bamboo shoots preservation, which created deadly toxin Clostridium botulium.

The toxin in Clostridium botulinum is one of the most powerful toxins and can be used as a biological weapon. This toxin is fatal because it paralyzes respiratory muscles, making it impossible to breathe. The patient must be assisted with breathing to survive until the nerves recover.

Because the main hospitals in Nan Province overloaded patients, the 17 most severe patients were taken by plane to Bangkok for treatment on March 23.

Basically, these 17 patients are still not in danger. Although blood pressure and blood vessels are normal, these patients have not recovered. Even some people can't move their bodies. Doctors determine the patient's condition depending on the amount of poison they eat.

Some patients also suffer from lung infections, one of the complications of using a breathing machine. Many people have bladder infections

Clostridium botulium is a rod-shaped bacterium, often found in long-term canned food or contaminated canned foods during processing. In addition, Clostridium botulinum bacteria are also found in uncooked foods.

Usually after eating food containing this bacterium for 2 to 48 hours, the patient has signs of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, fatigue, shortness of breath and coma. If not handled promptly the mortality rate is very large.

Toxins in Clostridium botulinum are the most toxic natural substances known to humans. Very small amounts of this substance in the blood can paralyze respiratory muscles and cause death after a few minutes. (According to Science and Life).
A 14-year-old female patient, one of the three most severely ill patients treated at Ramathibodi Hospital, suffered from a coma. She could not move. To reduce complications due to prolonged use of breathing machines, doctors are considering performing a tracheostomy, using artificial trachea, placed in her neck.

Dr. Prat Boonyawongvirot, Permanent Deputy Secretary of the Thai Ministry of Public Health, said that if there were no complications, these patients would also have to recover two months.

Faced with this situation, health officials in Thailand had to seek help from international experts to treat patients. The army biological weapons experts and experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) came to Nan province to investigate the disease.

To date, Thailand's Minister of Public Health, Pinij Jarusombat, has ordered health workers in Nan and neighboring provinces to check bamboo shoots at markets to see if these products are contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. is not.

Ban Luang district (Nan province), the center of epidemics, banned the sale and transportation of canned bamboo. The Thai Ministry of Public Health advises people not to panic and to eat cooked food, to boil bamboo shoots for 30 minutes.

According to Christopher Braden, Atlanta Center expert of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this is one of the largest food poisonings in decades in the world. In the 1991 outbreak, 90 people in Egypt became ill after eating food containing Clostridium botulinum.

Minh Thuong