MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) – Three more people have died from drinking contaminated beer, bringing the number of fatalities to 72, as the number hospitalized fell by more than 150, health authorities in Mozambique said on Tuesday.
About 35 victims are now hospitalized, down from 196, according Paula Bernardo, director of health, women and social welfare in the northeastern Tete province. At least seven people are still in critical condition in hospitals in the Chitima district, Bernardo told Radio Mozambique.
Dozens of people fell ill in Chitima and in the neighboring Songo district after drinking traditional beer, known as Pombe, at a funeral over the weekend. The beer, brewed from millet or corn flour, is believed to have been poisoned with crocodile bile, according to district health officials.
Police investigating the incident said the barrel in which the beer was originally brewed has since disappeared, hampering the investigation.
Police have no leads, police spokesman Zeferino Sande told Radio Mozambique. Medical and law enforcement reinforcements were sent to the region to assist with the disaster.