The team documented 84 deaths at one outbreak in Iran last year. Dr Hovda said the problem is that not only do victims not recognise what has happened, but medical staff rarely have the skills and knowledge to deal with such a poisoning. So the initiative is working to raise awareness of the need for quick diagnosis and treatment to avoid avoidable suffering and hundreds of deaths each year. They travel around the world training staff and have developed films and educational material targeting the public in affected areas.
They also have a rapid response team, which can deploy anywhere in the world as soon as there's word of a mass outbreak. One of the biggest issues they're fighting in predominantly Muslim countries like Indonesia is that drinking alcohol is taboo or even illegal, so people will avoid seeking help out of shame or fear of incrimination.
It doesn't help that the best antidote to methanol is ethanol. That also means that if a person has drunk both ethanol and methanol - as Kardi had - it can be a while before the poisoning takes effect. But also, shots of vodka or gin will stave off the effects of the methanol until the affected person can get professional help and as Kardi found in Indonesia, medics in countries where alcohol is taboo may refuse to use ethanol as a treatment, or turn people away if they've been drinking.
Lhani Davies runs a charity called Lifesaving Initiatives About Methanol LIAM , which advises tourists on how to avoid methanol and what to do if someone gets poisoned.
The acronym was the name of her son, who died while holidaying in Indonesia in Well aware of the dangers of methanol poisoning, they'd stayed away from local alcohol and stuck to imported alcohol, but were unaware the bar staff had decanted moonshine into the branded bottles.
Liam fell severely ill, but because of a string of misdiagnoses, received no appropriate methanol treatment for 20 hours.
He died three hours after being flown back to Australia. That's a true sign of methanol poisoning. She says medical staff need to be trained to realise that methanol poisoning is not the same as heavy drinking, and that it needs urgent - and specialist - treatment. And since methanol poisoning often causes changes in consciousness, it can be impossible to ask a patient directly. But if doctors can make a diagnosis early enough, treatment can be lifesaving.
A prescription drug called fomepizole binds to alcohol dehydrogenase and prevents it from turning methanol into formic acid. The bootleggers feel that as long as they leave some ethanol, it will neutralize the deleterious effects of the methanol. Counterfeit alcohol can range from bottom-shelf swill being sold as top-shelf booze to mixing in toxic methanol.
The issue drew media attention in recent years after tourists traveling abroad in Indonesia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic became ill or died after drinking contaminated alcohol. In other countries where alcohol sales are banned, the only source for liquor is via the black market.
Pure ethanol sold for industrial uses is also sometimes spiked with methanol, ostensibly to prevent its diversion for bootleg liquor. This makes adulterated alcohol a major problem in places like Iran, according to Hassanian-Moghaddam. Despite this, no country routinely collects data on the number of methanol poisoning cases, due in large part because it mainly affects the most impoverished and marginalized citizens, many of whom also binge drink , Hovda says.
Even though the phenomenon is much rarer in America than in other countries due to more stringent regulations on alcohol sales and distribution, those impacted in the U. Brooks had received reports from emergency room physicians across Arizona that a handful of people, mostly men in their 30s and 40s, had shown up at hospitals with methanol poisoning.
After conducting a similar investigation in New Mexico, Smolinske, Brooks, and a team of epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified 15 cases of methanol poisoning across the two states between May 1 and June Four of these individuals died, and three were left with permanent visual impairments.
In July, Smolinske says, four more people were hospitalized in New Mexico. All the cases involved ethanol-based hand sanitizers manufactured in Mexico that were contaminated with methanol. As the pandemic diverted ethanol for hand sanitizer from already stretched supply chains, the lockdowns imposed in both states also made it more difficult for those with an alcohol dependency to find their normal drinks.
What resulted was people—nearly all of them men between the ages of 21 and 60 with existing alcohol problems—drinking cheap hand sanitizer they could find at corner stores and gas stations. The U. Food and Drug Administration has since issued warnings about a variety of hand sanitizer products due to contamination issues. But use of the contaminated sanitizer could still lead to nausea, vomiting, and vision problems —not to mention that methanol is ineffective at killing microbes. News reports gathered by SafeProof.
There are antidotes to reverse the effects of methanol, including fomepizole or ethanol, the NIH said on its website. But whether a person recovers after ingesting methanol depends on how much the individual swallowed and how soon he or she received medical care, the NIH said. In people who survive, blindness is common, the agency said.
A minute level of methanol is found in most alcoholic drinks, and such levels are safe. But if alcohol is not properly distilled, methanol levels can be dangerously high, according to a report on a case of methanol poisoning that the CDC issued earlier this year. Methanol is colorless and smells like alcohol, and it is sometimes deliberately added to illegal alcohol drinks in order to strengthen them or make them stretch further, according to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
But what exactly is methanol, how is it produced, and, more importantly, how would you know if you have drunk it? Methanol is the simplest form of alcohol. The potential for its presence in drinks made from home-distilled spirits is a serious health risk. Methanol is formed in very small amounts during fermentation, the process by which alcohol is made from plant products like grape juice or cereal grains.
There are small amounts in wine and beer, but not enough to cause problems when these products are made at home, says Leigh Schmidtke, a senior lecturer in wine microbiology and production at Charles Sturt University. But home distillation to make spirits like gin or rum concentrates the levels of both ethanol and methanol. Commercially-made spirits are very safe because manufacturers use technologies specifically designed to ensure methanol is separated from the ethanol.
But home brew systems are typically not so technically advanced, which makes separation more difficult. The group of Australians thought most at risk of methanol poisoning are travellers, especially those travelling to countries where home-brewed spirits are widely available, such as Indonesia or Thailand. The safest approach is not to drink any local home-brewed alcohol, although travellers are not always aware of the source of alcohol in drinks they are served.
The family of Perth carpenter Liam Davies, who died after drinking a cocktail containing methanol in Lombok, says he thought he was drinking imported vodka and lime. It's speculated that locally made bootleg liquor is sometimes added to or substituted for commercially-distilled spirits in drinks sold in bars because commercial spirits are expensive. There are also reports of contaminated home-made spirits having been stored in and served from commercial spirit bottles.
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