SP government confirms 2nd death by methanol poisoning

Today, the federal government has also announced the purchase of 2,500 hunger treatments, a drug considered antidote for methanol poisoning. The medicine was bought with a Japan pharmacist a day after Brazil published an emergency call to international industries that produce the drug.

Value of treatments has not been disclosed by the government so far. According to Padilha, last week, agencies from ten different countries were fired and seven companies with a history of hunger production were sought in the world, as the antidote “is not a drug of great circulation”. Due to the emergency, it was not necessary to open bidding for the purchase.

The hunger bar the enzyme that, during methanol metabolization, transforms it into formaldehyde and formic acid, which interferes with the body. It is sold in 1.5 ml ampoules, which are injected into patients, but is not part of the country’s national policy of toxicological antidotes.

Secretary of the folder reassured the population and said that antidote that Brazil has today is sufficient for patients. “Ethanol realizes what we have today. We don’t have to create panic in the population, because what we have available help, and a lot,” said the secretary of health surveillance Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão in an interview with GloboNews.

What is methanol

Methanol is harmful to health and can cause various symptoms. Exposure to significant quantities of the product may result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death. In some cases, the substance is often added illegally to the fuel as a cheaper alternative to ethanol.