WHAT’S BEING CLAIMED:
- Costa Rica’s Health Ministry announced Monday that 25 people have died and dozens more have required hospitalization after drinking tainted liquor in the Central American country.
- No tourists had been reported dead and that almost all who died were Costa Rica citizens, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry told NBC News.
- An American, who went to Costa Rica last month and claimed that he drank a local rum that officials have identified as tainted, experienced fatigue and achy muscles a day after returning to Los Angeles.
Costa Rica’s Health Ministry announced Monday that 25 people have died and dozens more have required hospitalization after drinking tainted liquor in the Central American country.
Nearly a month ago, the country’s health officials said that 19 people died due to alcohol-related incidents, attributing the deaths to methanol poisoning.
The Associated Press reported that liquor producers sometimes use the potentially toxic chemical compound to increase profit margins and increase the alcohol content.
The country’s Health Ministry said it had seized over 55,000 bottles of liquor and closed 10 supermarkets and other businesses in San José, Costa Rica’s capital, and in the city of Alajuela, where the tainted alcohol was sold.
No tourists had been reported dead and that almost all who died were Costa Rica citizens, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry told NBC News.
Walker Barnes, a 25-year-old American from California, said he went to Costa Rica last month for a surf trip with his family. In an interview, he said that he drank a local rum that officials have identified as tainted on his last night there.
Barnes said he felt fatigued and experienced achy muscles a day after returning to Los Angeles. Soon, he could barely move.
He said he underwent a series of tests and went to the emergency room for several days, adding that he was discharged without a diagnosis.
In an Instagram video posted by Barnes’ brother, Fletch Barnes, doctors told the young man that “he must have a weird virus or a curious case of pneumonia,” about his ordeal that includes hospital footage.
After Barnes saw an article about tainted alcohol in Costa Rica, he talked to his doctor about it. He said the physician agreed that his symptoms seemed to point to methanol poisoning.
Source: AOL.com
