France: 15 people died and were hospitalized due to suspected "homemade" sardines

According to a global press release issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) on September 21 (Vietnam time), a total of 15 cases of poisoning by the "killer" bacteria Clostridium botulinum have been reported by French authorities sporadically since September 12, including one death.

Of the survivors, eight are still in critical condition and are in intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals.

Pháp: 15 người chết và nhập viện nghi ngờ do cá mòi nhà làm - Ảnh 1.

Clostridium botulinum is at risk of appearing in unsafe canned and jarred foods - Illustration photo from the Internet

This is a restaurant that attracts international tourists. The 15 patients include French people as well as citizens of Canada, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the UK, and the US. They all ate sardines at a restaurant in Bordeaux, France, not the canned kind but the "homemade" kind preserved by the restaurant itself.

Test results identifying the pathogen as Clostridium botulinum were performed by the Pasteur Institute in Paris (France).

Because the event occurred during a major international rugby tournament in the area, Bordeaux saw a lot of visitors, and the incubation period is up to eight days, WHO officials fear the actual number of cases could be higher and some visitors may have returned home.

Therefore, WHO requires member countries to immediately report to the organization if they detect a case, because Clostridium botulinum is considered an extremely dangerous pathogen; as well as prevent this type of poisoning through safe food processing.

Clostridium botulinum disease, commonly known as "meat poisoning" in the West, occurs mainly in canned foods. To prevent it, the canning process must be standardized to ensure food is sterile.

Crude processing methods such as heat sterilization (vacuum, smoking) are often insufficient to kill pathogens.

Clostridium botulinum is extremely neurotoxic, with symptoms quite similar to tetanus, and can quickly paralyze patients, including parts of the body that serve vital functions such as breathing, resulting in many victims dying or requiring mechanical ventilation.

The drugs that treat Clostridium botulinum are rare and expensive. Patients who survive ICU care often take months to recover.

Clostridium botulinum is also the cause of a recent fatal poisoning incident in Vietnam, where many people died and were hospitalized due to suspected poisoning from pork roll products from a facility in Thu Duc City - Ho Chi Minh City in May 2023.

It was also the cause of the poisoning of pickled fish in Quang Nam in March 2023, the poisoning of a type of vegetarian pate in several provinces and cities (including Ho Chi Minh City) in August 2020...

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