Latest news with #methanolpoisoning
Arab News
a day ago
- Health
- Arab News
Nine die, 27 hospitalized from methanol poisoning in alcoholic beverages in Jordan
LONDON: The Jordanian Ministry of Health announced that nine people died and 27 others were hospitalized this week due to poisoning after consuming alcoholic drinks contaminated with methanol. The affected individuals are currently receiving intensive medical treatment, including dialysis to remove the toxic substance from their bloodstream, at hospitals in Zarqa, Amman and Balqa, Director of the Technical Affairs Department at the Ministry Imad Abu Yaqeen told Petra news agency. Most patients were in a critical condition, he said, with some requiring ventilator support in intensive care units. Methanol, a highly toxic substance, is not intended for oral consumption and is used as a solvent in paints and as a fuel additive. Abu Yaqeen said that dialysis remained the most crucial life-saving measure, along with ventilator support. However, these interventions might be less effective if significant amounts of methanol were ingested, he added. He said that the first cases reported over the weekend were at Zarqa Government Hospital, and the ministry is continuing to enhance preparedness in the emergency and ambulance departments to handle any new cases. On Monday, Jordan's Public Security Directorate, or PSD, arrested several individuals suspected of producing toxic alcoholic beverages using industrial methanol. The PSD raided a factory where suspects purchased methyl alcohol and used it to manufacture illicit alcoholic beverages, as well as a warehouse that supplied the substance to the market. Additionally, authorities seized large quantities of alcohol from stores that the factory produced.
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
I was on brink of death after trip of a lifetime turned into a nightmare with one drink – this is my warning to everyone
DOWNING shot after shot of vodka just hours after landing in New Zealand, backpacker Ashley King could feel herself becoming tipsy. But the then 19-year-old wasn't aiming to get drunk, these shots were a matter of life or death. 9 9 Ashley wasn't in a bar but rather a hospital with medics administering the spirit to counteract the deadly methanol that was slowly killing the student. Just 24 hours earlier on the tourist strip of Kuta - on the southern tip of Bali - Ashley had ordered a fruit-flavoured vodka-based cocktail. Little did she know it would change her entire life. 'I drank a cocktail laced with deadly methanol,' says Ashley, 32 who now lives in Calgary, Canada. 'It made me go blind and from there my life changed forever. 'It was just like any other drink I'd been served during my trip and it tasted totally normal." Waking up the next morning Ashley admits she was tired and felt a little nauseous but had swerved the worst hangover symptoms as she headed to catch her flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. But while Ashley was hangover-free, she didn't realise the devastating consequences that night in August 2011 would have on her entire life. She says: 'When I got on the plane to leave Bali, I had no idea it would be the last time I would ever be able to admire the view from a plane window.' When Ashley landed in New Zealand she found herself "feeling odd" as she made her way through customs. Grieving parents lead emotional tributes to 'beautiful' Brit lawyer poisoned by 'methanol-laced booze' in Laos She recalls: 'I struggled talking to customs officials. "I wasn't making any sense and I felt like I was going to throw up. 'I tried to convince myself it was the effects of a long flight but I knew deep down something was wrong." She was feeling worse as every minute passed. 'I felt uncoordinated and ran to the toilet feeling sick," says Ashley. 'I thought it might be a bug, I had no idea what was to come." Desperately trying to get herself together in the toilets, an airport staff member spotted Ashley and came to her aid. 'I must have looked like a proper fright, the woman was so kind and offered to drive me to my hotel,' Ashley recalls. 9 9 9 She got to her hotel room around 5pm, less than 24 hours since she had left Bali, where she tried to sleep off her symptoms. When she woke up Ashley assumed it was the early hours of the morning as everything was dim. 'I thought my iPod had died because I couldn't see the screen,' she says. 'I was annoyed because I thought the lamp I'd left on must have fused in the night as it was off." Ashley opened her door to use a communal bathroom and was greeted by what she thought was a darkened hallway. 'The hallway looked like all the lights were off," she says. "I could barely make out the floor, all I could see was a little light under the cracks of the doorways." After stumbling to the loo, Ashley realised she had locked her key in her room and visited to reception for a new one. 'I felt like I'd run a marathon getting back to my room from reception," she admits. "I'm an asthmatic and I couldn't catch my breath. I thought I was suffocating. Begged for help She struggled back to reception where she begged for help. It was then Ashley was hit by another shock when the receptionist explained that it was midday. 'I couldn't believe it, all I could see was shapes and barely colour,' Ashley recalls. 'I was terrified.' With her vision getting worse by the second, the receptionist drove Ashley to the nearest hospital. 'I kept running my hands over my face trying to make myself see or just make sense of where I was,' she says. 'I was alone in a new country, and I was relying on someone I didn't know to get me to the emergency room. 'I felt like I was suffocating, literally from my asthma attack as well as from the sheer terror of losing my sight.' At the Christchurch Hospital the teen was questioned by doctors who asked her whether she had taken any drugs. It wasn't until Ashley's blood tests came back that the awful truth of what had happened came out. 'I was told I had methanol poisoning and this was desperately serious,' Ashley recalls. 'I was told that I could be blind forever and I might not even make it through the night." Methanol is an industrial chemical found in antifreeze and windscreen washer fluid. It's not meant to be drunk by people and a mouthful of pure methanol, which is odourless and tasteless, is fatal. In some Asian countries and other popular tourist destinations, methanol can be found in bootleg liquor - homemade alcohol with methanol added and sold at very low cost to unscrupulous bar owners. It's cheaper than ethanol, so black market alcohol sellers add it to spirits to save costs, before the counterfeit alcohol is rebottled and sold in shops and bars. Between 2009 and 2014 British Government figures reveal three Brits died from methanol poisoning in Bali while most recently in November last year, British lawyer Simone White tragically died from suspected methanol poisoning at a bar in Vang Vieng, Laos, as a result of consuming contaminated alcohol. Simone's best friend, another Brit Bethany Clarke, 28 was among the eight people, who recovered. For Ashley, her poisoning meant she was now only experiencing blindness, but her breathing had become so bad she was begging to be intubated. 'The consultant refused and rang my mother," she says. "She's a nurse and told them to do whatever it took to help me." 'Whatever it took'' was Ashley having to drink more than five shots of vodka as rapidly as possible. 'It sounds crazy but one of the only ways to quickly limit the impact of methanol on the body is to make a victim drink alcohol," she explains. Ashley was told ethanol, which is in alcohol and found in higher concentrations like vodka, acts as a competitive inhibitor to the methanol. The vodka's ethanol more effectively bound and saturated the alcohol enzyme in Ashley's liver blocking the way the methanol attacked her body. 'It temporarily paralysed the toxic impact of the methanol in my system," she says. 'I was handed plastic cups with orange juice and vodka and told to down them as quickly as I could." The results of what Ashley described as 'the most bizarre drinking game ever' was her breathing returned to normal, and she started to see shapes and colours again. 'I was totally wasted, extremely drunk and happy – I was giggling and laughing, and able to breathe properly and see again,' she says. Ashley was immediately taken to the intensive care unit for the next phase of methanol poisoning treatment. The teen was put on haemodialysis, which is a way to filter her blood removing the waste, salt, and water because her kidneys couldn't cope with methanol removal. The ICU team knew making her drink vodka was only a temporary fix to slow down the poisoning. They had no idea whether she'd be alive long enough to see her mum who was flying in from Canada. 'When I woke up in the ICU I was confused," Ashley says. "I didn't properly understand the seriousness of the situation. I thought given the quick doctor-prescribed alcohol-fix I'd be off backpacking the next day. 'But as the hours wore on my doctor-induced a hangover began and fear crept in. 'I don't remember much because the hemodialysis was actually cleaning my blood of toxins. 'I couldn't see that well but I felt I was on the road to recovery.' Three days after her farewell Bali cocktail and before her mum arrived Ashley was sober enough to be told by her ICU team leader that, despite earlier hope of improvement, she was blind and there was almost no chance her sight would ever improve from its current state. Why is methanol so deadly? By Sam Blanchard, Health Correspondent METHANOL is a super-toxic version of alcohol that may be present in drinks if added by crooks to make them stronger or if they are brewed or distilled badly. The consequences can be devastating because as little as a single shot of contaminated booze could be deadly, with just 4ml of methanol potentially enough to cause blindness. Prof Oliver Jones, a chemist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said: 'The body converts methanol to formic acid. 'Formic acid blocks the action of an enzyme that is critical to how the body uses oxygen to generate energy. 'If it stops working, cells cannot take up or use oxygen from the blood and lack of oxygen causes problems in a range of organs as the cells start to die. 'Symptoms of methanol poisoning include vomiting, seizures and dizziness. 'The optic nerve seems to be particularly vulnerable to methanol toxicity, so there is the potential for temporary or permanent blindness, and even death. 'While thankfully rare, methanol poisoning is very serious, and treatment should be given at a hospital.' An unexpected but key way of treating methanol poisoning is to get the patient drunk with normal alcohol - known as ethanol - to distract the liver and stop it processing the methanol. 9 9 'I burst into tears and cried hysterically,' she says. Finally with her mum by her side in hospital, Ashley underwent an intensive course of intravenous steroids to try and slow the swelling on her optic nerve which was causing the blindness as it had been ravaged by the methanol and its toxins. She gained enough sight to identify colours and shade as well as shapes and a day later she could read for a short period of time. 'Initially I could see shapes, then things came back into focus but my sight didn't last," she says. A few days later the words she was reading started blurring and the terrifying darkness and blindness returned. There was nothing more hospital staff could do but send her back to the hotel with steroid tablets and directions to stay in darkness and see if there was an improvement. For almost four weeks all Ashley could do was lie on the bed listening to the songs on her iPod, being helped outside by her mum and taken to the hospital for regular checkups. 'I'd sleep and dream in vivid colour and wake up to darkness,' Ashley says. 'I lay there and every day the nightmare got worse. 'I wasn't just learning to cope with a 'new normal' of blindness but the loss of my future. 'The career I planned was dead, I thought I'd never go to university, never get married or have kids and I'd be bed bound and blind. 'I thought my life was over.' When Ashley and her mum finally returned to Calgary Ashley moved into her parents' basement as her room was being rented out. 'My parents were amazing but by now my grief had reached the anger phase,' she says. 'I hated the world, I was angry with everyone, and I was just awful to anyone in the house. 'I was alone in my loss of sight, the loss of the ability to put on my own make-up, shop for new clothes, cook my own food or even cross the street. 'It's overwhelming.' Slowly though Ashley admits her anger phase gave way to determination and denial. 'I had salt and pepper or snow blizzard vision. Doctors describe it as 2% sight,' she says. 'It's like your world is static on television, that's all you see except for the occasional shape. 'I tried to carry on as normal and meet friends but when I tried to cross a road and got hit by a car, 'I luckily didn't suffer any injuries but it served as a wake up call for me. I realised some parts of my life had to change. 'I came to the realisation that if I were to regain part of my old life I needed help to learn to live with my disability.' Ashley received support from local blind awareness charities and learned to use a magnifying kit to try and enable her to read some words. 'I refused to have a guide dog, use a white cane, or wear dark glasses,' she says. 'I didn't want special treatment. I wanted to be normal and treated normally.' And with patience, Ashley was able to find her new normal. Holiday warning In 2013, two years after the methanol poisoning Ashley was backpacking again not just in Canada but across the globe. She explains: 'I've visited seven countries in South America, Europe, and India. I spent nine months in Southampton doing an exchange in January 2016. 'I achieved my goal of going to university and graduated with a degree in journalism.' Ashley is now working as an actor and playwright having completed a Master Class Actor training program. Ashley wrote a play STATIC: A Party Girls Memoir about her experience and it is now available as a four-part podcast on Spotify. She also went on to find love with long-term boyfriend, Trent, 35, a goldmine project manager who she met online in May 2020. 'I have become a new me with a new normal and I am shining,' she says. 'What happened to me taught me to be braver. 'While it should never have happened, I cannot give into the anger and depression which wracked me in the days and months after the poisoning occurred.' Ashley is urging all Brits travelling to Bali and parts of Asia known for outbreaks of methanol poisoning to adopt a 'DRINK BEER AND STEER CLEAR' policy. 'Before I was blind, I loved my cocktails and spirit mixes,' she says. 'Now when I travel its beer or canned cocktails or canned wines – to ensure there has been no tampering. 'Now it's my job to warn the millions of Brits planning summer holidays this could also happen to you. 'I was not a silly teenager being wild on an overseas holiday. I was a careful and aware traveller. 'I am your living walking reality check - please listen to what happened to me so it doesn't become your nightmare.' 9 9
Al Bawaba
2 days ago
- Health
- Al Bawaba
Alcohol poisoning kills 9, injures 17 in Jordan
Published June 30th, 2025 - 10:22 GMT ALBAWABA - The death toll from methyl alcohol poisoning has risen to 9, with 17 infections, according to the Public Security Directorate in Jordan. It also added in a brief statement on Monday that all injuries are being treated, and the investigation into the case is still ongoing. For his part, the Director of the Technical Affairs Department at the Ministry of Health, Imad Abu Yaqeen, said that more than 15 cases of alcohol poisoning arrived at hospitals yesterday, with their conditions ranging from critical to very serious. These cases were admitted as a result of alcohol consumption, which was found to contain a toxic substance, methanol, Yaqeen confirmed. He explained that Zarqa Government Hospital received three patients with symptoms mimicking toxicity, which led to elevated blood acidity. وزارة الصحة : 15 حالة تسمم كحولي بالمستشفيات حتى صباح الاثنين وجميعهم بحالة حرجة — Hala Abadii (@HalaAbad361756) June 30, 2025 © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
South China Morning Post
22-06-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
British survivor of Laos methanol poisoning speaks out after watching friend die
British national Bethany Clarke still remembers that day in Vang Vieng, Laos – tubing down the river with friends, followed by a sunset happy hour at the Nana Backpackers Hostel. It had all the hallmarks of a classic backpacker afternoon. The vodka and whisky shots were free. The cost would come later. It was November 12, 2024. The next morning, Clarke and her two companions – childhood friend Simone White and a male friend – set out early for a kayaking trip they had planned the day before. But instead of excitement, Clarke felt unusually drained. 'I just felt sick and we were lying flat on our backs in the kayaks looking at the sky. My brain wasn't functioning. I didn't feel like it was a hangover, but I couldn't work out why. It didn't make sense,' Clarke told This Week in Asia. It was the beginning of a nightmare that would end in a hospital bed in Vientiane, with Clarke watching her best friend die from methanol poisoning – a preventable tragedy that, experts say, continues to result from periodic outbreaks of contaminated alcohol across Southeast Asia and claims hundreds of lives worldwide each year. Shots being served at the Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng on November 12, last year. Photo: Facebook/Bethany Clarke White, a 28-year-old lawyer from the UK , had also felt unwell that morning. Still groggy and confused, the group endured a torturous bus ride to the Laotian capital, first to visit a medical clinic before being referred to a larger hospital, as White's condition quickly deteriorated.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Outrage as backpackers hostel where Aussie teens died plans to reopen: 'They should be banned'
The survivor of a lethal suspected methanol poisoning at a Laos hostel, which killed two Melbourne teenage girls, has slammed plans for the venue to reopen. Best friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles were staying at the Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng when they became sick after drinking at the bar in November. The 19-year-olds were among six tourists who died after suffering from suspected methanol poisoning. The Herald Sun published photos on Saturday that suggested the venue, which has been closed since the incident, was planning to reopen. The images, taken this week, showed new paintwork and repairs, including a green trim on the windows of the upper floors. There is a banner at the entrance which reads 'VangVieng Central Backpackers Hostel', implying there has been a change of name. British 28-year-old Bethany Clarke survived the alleged poisoning which killed her friend Simone White. She has shared her outrage that the hostel could reopen, saying: 'This site should be a memorial, I don't want to see anyone staying there.' Photos of the Nana Backpackers Hostel from this week suggest it has been rebranded, with new paintwork and a change of name 'Vang Vieng Central Backpackers Hostel' Advertisements for the newly-named hostel have appeared on the travel sites TripAdvisor and Agoda. Among the photos are images showing the same bar where the tragic incident occurred, and the pool can be seen in the gallery of one listing. 'It's completely unbelievable, they shouldn't be allowed to advertise on TripAdvisor and Agoda, they should be banned,' Ms Clarke said. 'When you go on to the site Vang Vieng Central Backpackers you can see the pool at Nanas, so it appears they are linked.' There are currently no available dates listed on the advertisements of either travel website. Asked about a potential reopening, a spokesperson for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they were working to avoid repeat incidents. 'The Australian Government will continue to do everything possible to assist Holly and Bianca's families, and to reduce the risks of a tragedy like this happening again,' the spokesperson said. 'Our officials remain engaged with Laos authorities to reinforce our expectations for a transparent and thorough investigation.' Adverts on travel websites have included photos of the hostel bar where the suspected methanol poisoning occurred, but with the new name for the venue One TripAdvisor gallery photo for Vang Vieng Central Backpackers Hostel clearly shows the pool of Nanas Backpackers The Laos Government said it would conduct an investigation into the cause of the Novemeber incident and bring the perpetrators to justice. Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, and American James Hutson, 57, also died in the same incident. Eight men aged between 23 and 47 were taken into custody following arrests by police on November 25 as part of an investigation into the suspected poisonings. Among those arrested by Vang Vieng police were general staff and managers. There was no suggestion at the time that those detained were responsible for the tourists' deaths. A further five people, who were linked to the Tiger distillery, including the manufacturer of the drinks served, were also taken in for questioning. In February, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told federal parliament that authorities in Laos declined the offer of assistance from Australian Federal Police in its investigation of the incident. He vowed that Australian authorities wouldn't drop the matter. 'I would want to assure the families of Bianca and Holly that we remain in contact with the Laos authorities and that the offer of assistance is being consistently offered,' he said. The teens' families said in a joint statement they were 'extremely disappointed' by the lack of updates. 'As the Laos government rejects any support from the AFP our confidence in accountability and justice for everyone affected remains unanswered,' it said.
