The medicine arrived at local hospitals on the evening of May 24 after the Ministry of Health asked the WHO to help with an antitoxin supply to save six patients who have suffered from botulinum poisoning since May 13.
The six victims have been sent to three local hospitals after five of them ate pork pie and one consumed fermented fish. They first developed the symptoms of digestive disorder, fatigue, headache, dizziness, and diarrhoea and then became worse later with muscle weakness, dysphagia, and diplopia. Among them, three siblings aged between 10 and 14 who were sent to the HCM City Children's Hospital have been given two last vials of BAT in the country.
Meanwhile, three others including two brothers aged 18 and 26 and a 45-year-old man are being treated at Cho Ray Hospital and Gia Dinh People's Hospital.
The 45-year-old man, however, died on Wednesday evening after over a week of being treated at the hospital. According to doctors, it was too late for him to be given the botulism antitoxins. The two brothers aged 18 and 26 wouldn't be given the botulism antitoxins either as their conditions don't allow it. They are now being put on ventilators at the hospital's intensive care unit.
Botulism is a serious illness caused by clostridium botulinum, a poisonous substance in the bacteria found in badly preserved food, according to the Ministry of Health.