6 vials of antidote were brought from Switzerland to save the patient.

The Ministry of Health said that six vials of botulinum antitoxin were transferred from a warehouse in Switzerland to Ho Chi Minh City by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 24, and injected into three poisoned patients.

These three patients were poisoned by botulinum after eating pork sausage and fish sauce. They have been treated at Cho Ray Hospital for more than a week. They are all on ventilators and almost completely paralyzed because there is no antidote.

To get the antidote, yesterday afternoon, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan asked WHO to support Vietnam with botulinum antitoxin. Immediately after that, 6 vials of Botulism Antitoxin Heptavalent (BAT) were sent by WHO from the warehouse in Switzerland and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. Thus, thanks to the antidote from WHO, the patients have a chance to recover.

Botulinum poisoning is caused by infection with the bacterial toxin Clostridium botulinum, which is very rare in Vietnam and around the world . The main cause is bacterial toxin infection in poor quality food, or eating poorly preserved food. From 2020 to now, there have been a few cases every year, from May 13 to now there have been 6 cases in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the Ministry of Health, the disease is very rare, so the supply of the medicine in the world is also very limited. This is a medicine that is not easy to proactively supply, and the price is very high (8,000 USD per bottle). BAT is not currently included in the list of medicines covered by insurance.

To be more proactive with anti-poisoning drugs in particular and drugs with limited supply in general, the Ministry of Health is building a mechanism to ensure rare drugs. The solution is to establish a center to store rare drugs in socio-economic regions; at the same time, there needs to be a mechanism to pay for rare drugs that have been stored but have expired due to not being used because there are no patients.

The last vial of botulinum antitoxin was infused into three children at Children's Hospital 2. Photo: Provided by the hospital — A bottle of botulinum antitoxin is given to three children at Children's Hospital 2. Photo: *Provided by the hospital*

Since May 13, 5 people in Thu Duc City have been poisoned by botulinum due to eating street-sold pork sausages and one person is suspected of having eaten fish sauce. Among them, three children aged 10-14 were given antidotes and treated at Children's Hospital 2, and are currently improving. Two cases at Cho Ray Hospital, the remaining at Gia Dinh People's Hospital, are receiving supportive treatment because there is no antidote left.

Botulinum is a very strong neurotoxin, produced by anaerobic bacteria - bacteria that prefer closed environments such as canned foods, or food environments that do not meet the standards to inhibit bacterial growth.

Symptoms of poisoning include abdominal pain, muscle pain, fatigue, blurred or double vision, dry mouth, difficulty speaking, difficulty swallowing, drooping eyelids, and general muscle weakness. Finally, the patient has difficulty breathing or cannot breathe due to paralysis of the respiratory muscles. These signs appear slowly or quickly depending on the amount of botulinum ingested.

Le Nga

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