Ondo Toxic-Drink Crisis: Methanol Poisoning Kills Dozens, Blinds Five

When the price of medicine rises beyond what a household can afford, desperation can turn the search for treatment into another health risk.

That concern has taken on a deadly dimension in Ondo State, where a suspected toxic-drink outbreak has affected 182 people and killed dozens.

The Ondo State Government has reported 49 deaths, while the latest NAFDAC update put the toll at 48 as of September 17.

The difference reflects separate official updates as investigations continue. NAFDAC’s laboratory investigation found high concentrations of methanol in samples of locally prepared alcoholic and herbal drinks linked to the outbreak.

Eleven of 15 samples analysed also tested positive for Cannabis indica, according to the agency. Methanol is highly toxic when consumed. Exposure can cause serious poisoning, including visual damage, organ failure and death.

The agency said five victims had become totally blind and two partially blind. Six people remained hospitalised in its September 17 update, while others had been discharged or treated as outpatients.

The crisis has also exposed another problem: affordability.

A recent report on medicine prices found that rising costs of orthodox treatment are pushing some Nigerians, particularly people in low-income communities, towards herbal and other unorthodox remedies.

That does not mean every herbal remedy is dangerous. The concern is about products whose ingredients, dosage, production conditions or safety have not been properly established.

For someone who cannot afford prescribed medicine, however, the difference between a regulated product and an unverified concoction can become a matter of survival.

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NAFDAC said 15 people had been arrested in connection with the production, sale and distribution of the drinks involved in the Ondo outbreak, while further testing and investigation continued.

The Ondo tragedy therefore goes beyond a contaminated drink. It raises a harder question about access to healthcare: what happens when people begin to see regulated medicine as too expensive and unregulated alternatives as their only affordable option?

ValidViewNetwork reports that the Ondo deaths have placed both medicine affordability and the regulation of locally produced alcoholic and herbal preparations under renewed scrutiny.