Hanoi announces cause of food poisoning

In response to the above incident, the investigation and monitoring team collected 2 samples of hawthorn wine (including 1 sample from the family that held the wedding and 1 remaining sample of wine from the wedding that was brought home by a person in the group of patients) and sent them to the testing agency.

The Hanoi Department of Food Safety and Hygiene announced the results of the investigation and supervision of the methanol (industrial alcohol) poisoning case at a wedding in Trat Cau village, Tien Phong commune, Thuong Tin district.

Test results showed that the methanol content in the two wine samples above was more than 40 times higher than the permissible threshold.

In addition, 4 patients with methanol poisoning had blood methanol levels ranging from 51 mg/dL to 188.8 mg/dL. Hawthorn wine was the cause of the poisoning.

Regarding the above incident, the Hanoi Food Safety and Hygiene Department requested the Thuong Tin District Health Department to advise the District People's Committee to direct relevant units to destroy the remaining amount of alcohol that has been sealed according to regulations.

Along with that, units and localities increase information, communication and guidance for people to raise awareness and responsibility for ensuring food safety in alcohol production and trading.

“People absolutely do not use any floating alcohol, without labels, unknown origin, without licenses, or without technical guarantees sold on the market. At the same time, authorities recommend that consumers choose foods with clear origins,” noted the Hanoi Food Safety and Hygiene Department.

Previously, on July 23, the Poison Control Center (Bach Mai Hospital) admitted 4 patients with methanol (industrial alcohol) poisoning.

According to the patients and their families, at noon on July 20, the above patients attended a wedding party at Mrs. NTH's family (in Trat Cau village, Tien Phong commune, Thuong Tin district) and drank wine infused with wild apples. This wine was purchased by Mrs. NTH's family from Mr. PQT (in Vinh Yen city, Vinh Phuc province) in a quantity of 30 liters.

At 6:15 p.m. the same day, the four patients and a man named D.VC (56 years old, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi) continued to drink the remaining alcohol at the wedding party at the house of a person in the group. Each person drank about 500ml to 1,000ml.

After that, the patients had symptoms: fatigue, dizziness, headache... and were taken to the hospital by their families for treatment.

Mr. D.VC (56 years old) went home to sleep on the night of July 21. On the morning of July 22, the patient got up to shower, eat, and live at home. That same morning, the patient had symptoms of abdominal pain and vomited blood twice. On the morning of July 23, the patient died of unknown causes.

Increased food safety control in school areas

On July 30, the Hanoi Department of Food Safety and Hygiene held a training conference on appraisal and issuance of certificates of food safety qualified establishments and deployed a number of key tasks for the last 6 months of 2024.

Head of the Hanoi Food Safety and Hygiene Department Dang Thanh Phong said that Hanoi currently has more than 72,000 food production, trading and processing establishments; of which, the health sector manages about 39,000 establishments.

In the first 6 months of 2024, the whole city promoted inspection, examination and post-inspection work, established more than 600 inspection teams, focused on tracing the origin of food, and investigated and detected food safety violations, contributing to improving the effectiveness of food safety management in the city.

From now until the end of the year, food safety management will continue to be strengthened, focusing on controlling food safety in and around school gates in the area; inspecting food safety during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. It is expected that from August 5, the city will begin to inspect items for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

According to the Hanoi Department of Health, from August 2024, the city will begin implementing a thematic plan "Strengthening food safety control in and around school gates in Hanoi" for educational institutions in Hanoi.

According to the plan, the city's authorities will review and make statistics on educational facilities, collective kitchens, and school canteens under their management.

At the same time, the authorities will investigate, review, and regularly and continuously update food service establishments, street food establishments, and grocery stores that sell prepackaged foods and ready-to-eat processed foods according to each industry and food item around school gates.

The purpose of the plan is to promote propaganda, education, raise awareness, identify responsibilities and actions of Party committees and authorities at all levels in ensuring food security and safety in and around school gates.

In addition, the City has synchronously, drastically and effectively implemented food safety control work in and around school gates with a focus on high-risk food groups, ready-to-eat food and drinks, and establishments providing ready-to-eat meals.

In this plan, the Hanoi Department of Health has provided hotline numbers at the Hanoi Department of Food Safety and Hygiene: 0823.88.9095; 0922.55.9095.

The representative of the City Health Department hopes that when people see food stalls that do not ensure food safety in front of school gates or discover establishments with signs of food safety violations, they should send information to the hotline so that the authorities can investigate and resolve the matter.

Bach Mai Hospital deploys medical examination and treatment outside of office hours

Associate Professor, Dr. Dao Xuan Co, Director of Bach Mai Hospital, said that in order to meet the people's medical examination and treatment needs, contribute to reducing overload and improving the quality of medical services, starting from August 1, Bach Mai Hospital will deploy medical examination and treatment outside of office hours at K1 building - Department of medical examination on demand.

It is known that Bach Mai Hospital receives from 8,000 to 10,000 patients every day. The common mentality of Vietnamese people is to go to the doctor early in the morning on the first days of the week, "check up early, get results early, finish early". Checking up in the morning, at the beginning of the week is also convenient for fasting if some procedures need to be done.

Because of this concept, in the morning and on the first days of the week, clinics and hospitals must operate at high capacity, sometimes overloading locally. At Bach Mai Hospital, Tuesday mornings are often crowded, packed with people coming for medical examination and treatment.

With the extension of examination hours from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (Monday to Friday), people can easily arrange their work to conveniently go to the hospital, avoiding having to queue in crowded lines and wait for their turn.

Switching to afternoon examinations, after hours, not only helps people proactively arrange their time and complete necessary tasks, but also gives them the opportunity to make an appointment more easily, as well as have more options in examination time frames and choose a doctor according to their personal needs.

According to the Director of Bach Mai Hospital, after-hours examinations still include all specialties and clinical tests and x-rays as during office hours, but the cost remains the same. All examination rooms are located in the same building K1, which is very convenient for people to travel.

X-ray, ultrasound, endoscopy, testing rooms, etc. are located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of building K1, very convenient for patients.

According to doctors, patients who have blood tests, X-rays, ultrasounds, etc. will have full results after only 2 hours. In the case of only regular ultrasounds and X-rays, the results will be available after only 1 hour for the doctor to make a conclusion and prescribe medication.

With a wide range of medical examination hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (Monday to Friday) and from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Saturday and Sunday), people will have many options and convenience in arranging time and work to go to the doctor or take relatives to the doctor.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tin-moi-y-te-ngay-317-ha-noi-cong-bo-nguyen-nhan-ngo-doc-thuc-pham-tai-dam-cuoi-d221242.html