Every year dozens of people die from fake wine. The Toxicology Working Group of the Turkish Society of Emergency Medicine prepared a pivotal study with data received from 17 centers across Türkiye. One in three people will be permanently damaged by alcohol poisoning.
Every year dozens of people die from fake wine. The Toxicology Working Group of the Turkish Association of Emergency Medicine (TATD) prepared a pivotal study with data received from 17 centers across Türkiye. One in three people will be permanently damaged by alcohol poisoning.
For every 100 people who go to the hospital, 30 people die from fake alcohol.
One in three patients continue their lives with permanent damage such as vision loss or neurological disorders.
The results are from a study examining cases admitted to 17 different centers in Türkiye for methyl alcohol poisoning over the past 10 years.
Talking to NTV about the prepared study, Dr. Ömer Taşkın, TATD Toxicology Working Group Member, “We include large centers where poisoning cases from all over Türkiye are managed, such as Adana, Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa, Samsun and Diyarbakır. When evaluating patients, we found that unfortunately one in three died despite all treatment treatment and one-third must survive with permanent sequelae (impairment of function or tissue that stabilizes after an illness).” he said.
Counterfeit wine cases increase especially on New Year's Eve. There are patients who have died recently.
Taşkın said, “Every year, starting from the end of November to February, the number of cases is increasing. We saw 2 cases of methyl alcohol poisoning in our clinic in the past 2 weeks, we saved one case, but the other case was admitted to the hospital very late. Unfortunately, we lost it after a long stay in intensive care.” he said.
People with fake alcohol poisoning are slow to get to the hospital because they associate the symptoms with alcohol.
Chairman of the TATD Toxicology Working Group, Professor Dr. Ayça Açıkalın Akpınar said: “It takes a certain amount of time for patients to understand whether it is common alcohol or methanol poisoning. When the disease reaches a late stage, treatment conditions are difficult and the mortality rate is quite high. It is very important for us to collect data on access to treatment resources and which provinces see more.” he said.
HOW TO IDENTIFY FAKE WINE?
Experts warn. Fake wine cannot be distinguished by smell, color or any other characteristics.
