Death toll from bootleg alcohol rises to four in Van

VAN - Demirören News Agency

Two more people who had been taken to hospital after getting sick after drinking bootleg booze have lost their lives in the eastern province of Van, raising the number of people who died from bootleg alcohol in the city to four.

After bootleg booze killed two of the eight people who were hospitalized on Aug. 21, two more died in the hospital on Aug. 22. It was reported that the treatment of the other four people in the hospital continues.

Police teams determined that the drinks were prepared from materials brought to the city three days ago.

Mehmet Tatlı, an emergency medicine specialist at a hospital in Van, stated that the cases of methyl alcohol poisoning have risen in the hospital recently. “In these cases, death is almost inevitable if you don’t go to the hospital,” he said.

“Methyl alcohol is not a type of alcohol suitable for drinking. The risk of poisoning will be very high in all alcohol types that do not have an official label for consumption.”

Stating that in methyl alcohol poisoning, the cells in the whole body are poisoned and prevented from getting oxygen, Tatlı said deaths occur because oxygen cannot be provided to metabolism. “It is very difficult to say that there is a cure. No case actually returns to normal, either blindness begins or damage occurs in the internal organs.”

Bootleg alcohol is made using low-cost methyl alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol.

The consumption of illegally distilled liquor can cause permanent blindness, metabolic disturbances and death.

The skyrocketing rise in the prices of alcoholic beverages has encouraged fraudsters and has led people to fail to differentiate liquids produced in illegal laboratories.

Experts repeatedly warn drinkers not to buy from unlicensed sellers or attempt to distill their own drinks at home with unfamiliar materials.