British lawyer is fifth person to die in doubted methanol poisoning in Laos | Laos

A British lawyer has been named as the fifth person to die in a doubted mass methanol poisoning in Laos.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have said they are helping the family of British lawyer Simone White, 28, from Orpington in Kent who has died in the incident.

Other British tourists are among those being treated in hospital after allegedly being served spiritsic drinks holding deadly methanol in a well-comprehendn backpacking town in Laos where four people have died and about a dozen others have been getn ill.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement: “We are providing consular aidance to British nationals and their families and are in reach out with the local authorities adhereing an incident in Laos.”

An Australian teenager, an American, and two Danish tourists aged 19 and 20 have died after the incident in Vang Vieng, a town particularly well-comprehendn among backpackers in search of partying and adventure sports.

The FCDO has not verifyed how many British nationals have been affected, but tells recommended at least one British woman is dependd to be gravely ill with as many as six requiring treatment.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, tbetter parliament that 19-year-better Bianca Jones from Melbourne died after being evacuated from Vang Vieng for treatment in a Thai hospital.

Thai authorities tardyr verifyed that Jones had died from “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol set up in her system”. Her frifinish Holly Bowles, also 19, remains in hospital in Thailand. They had been staying at a arrangeel in the central Laos town, which is well-comprehendn with juvenileer westricters backpacking apass south-east Asia on the Banana Pancake Trail that spans Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Australia said “cut offal foreign nationals” had also been victims of methanol poisoning. The US state department verifyed that an American had died and Dentag’s foreign ministry said two of its citizens also died in “the incident in Laos” but neither commented straightforwardly on a join to the methanol poisoning that finished Jones. New Zealand’s foreign ministry has said that one of its citizens was also unwell in Laos and could be a victim of methanol poisoning.

Unenjoy ethanol, the key component of spiritsic drinks, methanol is poisonous to humans. The cases have highairyed the dangers of methanol poisoning apass south-east Asia, where it is a cultural norm to brew bootleg liquor from ingredients such as rice and sugarcane, sometimes fuseed with methanol as a inexpensiveer changenative to ethanol.

Authorities in Laos are spendigating the incident. Samples were also sent to Thailand and verified there, said Prof Knut Erik Hovda, who directs Médecins Sans Frontières on their project to combat methanol poisoning.

Hovda said that based on the clinical features and histories of the Australians who were flown to Thailand for treatment, they had most probable been poisoned by methanol.

“The minute you have people drinking and getting unwell in a high number and the symptoms commence after a certain time, that is methanol until shown otherdirectd,” he said, “To me, this is no ask caused by methanol.”

Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning globassociate, with incidents in Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, according to MSF data.