A homemade beer served at a funeral killed at least 69 people, while 169 more were hospitalized over the weekend at Mozambique, health officials confirmed. They believe that the beer, a traditional millet-based brew called pombe, was poisoned with 'crocodile bile'.
Paula Bernardo, the district director for Health, Women and Social Action, told a radio station in Mozambique that the toll of those hospitalized boomed during the course of the funeral. "As we prepared to determine the cause of death of people we began to receive a lot of people with diarrhea and other muscle aches. After that we began to receive dead bodies from several neighborhoods."
However, health officials are concerned over the increase of the death toll and hospitalizations related to the beer poisoning. They aired their concern because they do not have enough facilities and resources to deal with this kind of health problem.
All the victims had attended a funeral on Saturday. Ironically, those who drank the beer in the morning were not sick and had no signs of illness or poisoning while those who drank the beer in the afternoon were all sick the next morning. Health officials believe that the beer was poisoned with crocodile bile. The woman who brewed the beer was among the people who died.
It is still not clear where the assumptions and suspicions came from. However, samples from the beer were taken for further examination at the National Laboratory in the capital city of Maputo, Mozambique.
Authorities have created a probe to investigate the incident. They are working on many theories related to the poisoning. Meanwhile, the government declared three days of national mourning, Radio Mozambique added.
Health officials pinpoint the poisoning to the use of crocodile bile which has been a practice in the said country for beer production and brewing. "The use of bile is not uncommon in the production of local or poor quality beer but is not known to be toxic to the extent this outbreak shows," announced Christian Lindmeier, World Health Organization spokesman.
