A “epidemic”: this is the word chosen by the Australian and New Zealand authorities to describe the wave of methanol poisonings, caused by the consumption of contaminated alcoholic drinks, which caused the death of five young tourists traveling in Laos.
Thursday, November 21, Bianca Jones, a 19-year-old Australian, “who was taking the trip of a lifetime to Southeast Asia”, writes the Australian media News, was pronounced dead in Thailand, where she had been transported from neighboring Laos for hospital treatment. Last week, the young woman was in Vang Vieng, described by the BBC like a “small riverside town in central Laos, a popular stopover for young Western backpackers traveling through Southeast Asia,” when she and the friend who accompanied her allegedly felt unwell after consuming alcoholic beverages.
Bianca Jones died due to “hydrocephalus caused by methanol”, reports The New York Times. The American newspaper specifies that “methanol, a toxic chemical used in household and industrial products like antifreeze, is sometimes added to drinks as a cheap substitute for ethanol, the alcohol used in alcoholic beverages.” Her friend, Holly Bowles, is still hospitalized in critical condition in a Bangkok hospital.
A collective poisoning
Thursday, November 21, the American State Department also announced the death of an American in the same town of Vang Vieng. Later in the day, we learned of the death of Simone White, a 28-year-old British woman who had fallen ill after being poisoned with methanol, still in the same city. And, last week, two Danes, aged 19 and 20, died in Laos. The investigation into these two deaths is still ongoing, and the link with methanol has not yet been confirmed.
But in recent days, testimonies have multiplied on what seems to be a “collective poisoning” caused by alcoholic beverages and which left “at least 14 very sick people”, counts from Australia the public media ABC.
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