Twelve other people were receiving treatment for the rare condition, health officials said. (Representative)
Bordeaux, France:
A woman died of botulism in France last week after eating sardines at a restaurant and 12 other people were receiving treatment for the rare condition, health officials said on Wednesday.
Botulism is a serious neurological disease usually caused by eating food that has not been stored properly.
The restaurant in Bordeaux, southwestern France, had stored the sardines itself, the health authority DGS said late on Tuesday.
The nationality of the dead woman, 32 years old, has not yet been determined, a source close to the case said.
A doctor at Pellegrin Hospital in Bordeaux, Benjamin Clouzeau, said that 12 more people were receiving emergency treatment early Wednesday. Five of them received respiratory support.
The group included American, Irish and Canadian nationals, he said.
A German national traveled home for treatment, as did a resident of Barcelona, Spain, the doctor said.
They had all eaten at the restaurant, the “Tchin Tchin Wine Bar” in Bordeaux, between September 4 and 10, when there are usually large numbers of tourists in the city famous for its wine and food.
They all ate sardines that the restaurant owner had stored in jars, according to the DGS.
Botulism is fatal in five to ten percent of cases due to a toxin generated by the Clostridium botulinum bacteria and can appear if preserved foods are inadequately sterilized.
Authorities were still carrying out tests at the restaurant, the DGS said, adding that it could not rule out the emergence of further cases of botulism, which has an incubation period of up to several days.
It can cause muscle paralysis that lasts for several weeks, with the most immediate danger coming from the affected breathing muscles.
Local newspaper Sud-Ouest quoted the restaurant owner as saying he had thrown away some jars of sardines due to a “strong odor” coming from the containers when he opened them.
But others “appeared in good condition and were served to customers,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
