The number of people confirmed to have fallen ill after eating
raw or half-cooked snails contaminated with parasites at a Beijing
restaurant chain has risen from 70 to 87, the Beijing Health Bureau
reported on Wednesday.
Patients were diagnosed with a type of angiostrongyliasis, a
disease caused by parasites that affects the brain and spinal cord,
and can lead to meningitis, the bureau said.
In the past few days, the Tropical Diseases Department of the
Beijing Friendship Hospital, which specializes in treating the
disease, has been crowded with people complaining of headaches or
stiff necks, including some who hadn't even eaten raw or
half-cooked snails or other river or seafood.
The hospital has opened three more clinics and extended
consultation hours to cater for the influx of patients. Although
each doctor sees nearly 100 people a day, they're still finding it
hard to cope, a hospital spokesman said.
After two to three weeks' treatment, most of the first group of
patients the Friendship Hospital received are now in stable
condition, and some of them will be discharged from hospital this
week, the spokesman added.
Because the disease could produce sequelae such as headaches and
dementia, the hospital will conduct follow-up checks to ensure
complete recovery.
Dr. Yin Chenghong, an expert with the hospital's Tropical
Medicine Institute, urged citizens not to panic, saying that if
they hadn't eaten raw or half-cooked snails or other aquatic food,
there was no exposure to the disease.
"There's no need for the public to panic, they should go to a
clinic first if they have a fever or headache," he said.
The Friendship Hospital's first case of meningitis was reported
on June 24 when a 34-year-old man was admitted suffering from
violent headaches and nausea after having eaten a dish of cold
snail meat at one of the Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant outlets.
The restaurant that sold parasite-contaminated snails made an
official apology to customers on Wednesday.
Qu Chuangang, spokesman for Shuguoyanyi Restaurant, which serves
Sichuan-style food, said they will assume responsibility for the
incident and try their best to deal with the problems caused.
"All 390 staff members of our restaurant feel deeply sorry about
the incident. We hope we can do something to make up for it," Qu
said.
The restaurant admitted that the snails had not been processed
correctly, which was the main reason customers had taken ill.
The restaurant has formed a team to cooperate with the Beijing
Health Bureau in investigations.
The spokesman said his restaurant is ready to compensate those
who fell ill after eating the snails.
He said patients can bring them their restaurant bill and those
who do not have a restaurant bill can also be compensated because
Shuguoyanyi can confirm their visit by tracking dining records.
According to the Beijing Health Bureau, treatment for each
patient will cost at least 3,000 yuan (about US$375).
A patient surnamed Zhang said that he has spent 20,000 yuan
(US$2,500) on medical treatment. He wants compensation for physical
and mental suffering.
To date, no deaths have been reported.
Among the patients, the youngest was 13 years old and the oldest
51. All had eaten raw or undercooked Amazonian snails two to four
weeks ago at Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant outlets, according to the
health Bureau.
The bureau confirmed in its earlier report that infections were
as a result of processing problems at the restaurant, which failed
to eradicate eel worms on the snails.
The restaurant was ordered to stop selling the snail dishes on
August 8.
The Beijing health monitoring department posted an urgent notice
on Monday, asking that all restaurants in the city stop serving
undercooked snails.
The municipal food safety office ordered on Tuesday that all
agricultural markets, supermarkets, department stores and
restaurants must stop buying, selling and processing Amazonian
snails.
Beijing citizens have also been spreading the word by SMS.
According to Yin Quanxi, director of the emergency center of the
health monitoring department, the snails are edible if they are
cooked at 90 degrees Celsius or above for more than two
minutes.
The health bureau is trying to trace the suppliers of the snails
that were contaminated with eel worms.
The bureau has also demanded that the city's disease control and
health monitoring departments, together with the restaurant chain,
file daily reports.
Amazonian snails originated in South America and were introduced
to China in the 1980s as a delicacy. The first case of a person
falling ill after eating the snails was reported in Guangzhou in
south China's Guangdong Province.
The large, black snails were a popular dish in big Chinese
cities like Beijing.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2006)