10 People Drop Dead After Eating Dog Meat And Drinking Wine

A most terrible incident has claimed the
lives of about 10 people and so many
others sick after consuming dog meat
delicacy.
Cambodian health officials have
been sent to a northeastern district
where 10 people died and more than
100 were sickened in two separate
incidents linked to the consumption
of dog meat and rice wine, a medical
officer said Friday.
Kratie provincial health department
chief Chhneang Sivutha said experts
from the U.N.’s World Health
Organization were also investigating
the incidents, both in Snuol district.
He said people in the province have
been warned not to eat the meat of
animals that have died from illness
or poisoning, and not to drink any
wine that has not been properly
inspected.
Six people died last Sunday after
eating the barbequed carcass of a
dog that had died from unknown
cause. The four others died after
drinking rice wine on Tuesday.
Chhneang Sivutha said samples of
the dog meat and wine had been
collected and sent to the Health
Ministry in the capital, Phnom Penh,
for laboratory testing.
He said in a telephone interview that
poisoning cases were not unusual,
but it was rare to have so much
victims at the same time.
Food safety is not a priority in
Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest
countries. The country has had to
grapple with bird flu, with 56
confirmed cases of human infections
since 2003, 37 of them fatal.
Rice wine is particularly popular in
rural areas, where it is cheap and
usually infused with fruits or plants
that are believed to have medicinal
value.