Reviews of autopsies uncover no additional methanol-related deaths

Reviews of more than 150 autopsies of people who died in the Moravian-Silesian region over the last four months have revealed no further methanol-related deaths, forensics specialists have said. Methyl alcohol poisoning was uncovered earlier in the case of a woman from Havířov who died in May. That case is reportedly not related to the current wave of methanol poisoning in the country. Nineteen people in the Czech Republic (the latest a 66-year-old woman in Moravia-Silesia found dead in her apartment) have died in recent days as a result of consuming bootleg liquor laced with methyl alcohol. Twenty-seven others remain in hospital in serious condition; on Thursday alone five new cases were registered.

Author: Jan Velinger