After drinking the poisoned traditional beer at a funeral over the weekend, 69 people have died and 196 people have been admitted to hospitals in Chitima and Songo districts, a town in the northeastern Tete province, Provincial health director, Paula Bernardo, told Radio Mozambique on Monday. Health authorities are now concerned whether there will be more fatalities among those being treated at the hospital.
Following the incident, the government of Mozambique has declared three days of mourning, the Associated Press reported.
Pombe, a traditional Mozambican beer made from millet or corn flour, might have been poisoned with crocodile bile during the course of the funeral, according to authorities.
While mourners who drank the beer in the morning reported no illness, those who consumed it in the afternoon fell ill, authorities said. On Jan. 10, the first fatalities included the woman who brewed the beer and members of her family.
"We fear that the number of deaths will still increase as many people are still coming to hospital with diarrhea and muscular pains, the principle symptoms," Paula Sales, health director in Tete province, said by phone.
Samples of traditional beer and blood taken from the bodies of the Tete poisoning victims have been sent to the capital Maputo to be analyzed and tested, said provincial health director Carle Mosse.
Currently, the exact number of dead remains unclear since some of the ill never managed to reach a hospital, according to New York Daily News. "Many people died at home," Health Minister Alexandre Manguele said.
"I visited a local hospital this morning and some people are recovering well, but several of them are still bad," Manguele said in a phone interview, failing to confirm that the beer had been contaminated with the bile of crocodiles, which are common in Tete.
The situation is expected to worsen because the region does not have the necessary resources to deal with the disaster, Mosse told Radio Mozambique on Sunday.
The case is being investigated by police authorities.
Meanwhile, the home brewing of traditional alcoholic drinks is a common practice in many African countries, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
In Kenya, at least 105 people died in May after consuming a contaminated batch of chang'aa, a moonshine distilled from grains like wheat and corn. Chang'aa is typically offered at shacks or informal taverns in Kenyan towns and villages as a cheaper option than retail alcohol brands.
