British tourists are among those being treated in hospital after allegedly being served alcoholic drinks containing deadly methanol in a popular backpacking town in Laos where four people have died and about a dozen others have been taken ill.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement: “We are providing consular assistance to British nationals and their families and are in contact with the local authorities following 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 popular among backpackers in search of partying and adventure sports.
The FCDO has not confirmed how many British nationals have been affected, but reports suggested at least one British woman is believed to be seriously ill with as many as six requiring treatment.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told parliament that 19-year-old Bianca Jones from Melbourne died after being evacuated from Vang Vieng for treatment in a Thai hospital.
Thai authorities later confirmed that Jones had died from “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol found in her system”. Her friend Holly Bowles, also 19, remains in hospital in Thailand. They had been staying at a hostel in in the central Laos town, which is popular with young westerners backpacking across south-east Asia on the Banana Pancake Trail route that spans Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Australia said “several foreign nationals” had also been victims of methanol poisoning. The US state department confirmed that an American had died and Denmark’s foreign ministry said two of its citizens also died in “the incident in Laos” but neither commented directly on a link to the methanol poisoning that killed 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.
Unlike ethanol, the key component of alcoholic drinks, methanol is toxic to humans. The cases have highlighted the dangers of methanol poisoning across south-east Asia, where it is a cultural norm to brew bootleg liquor from ingredients such as rice and sugarcane, sometimes mixed with methanol as cheaper alternative to ethanol.
Authorities in Laos are investigating the incident. Samples were also sent to Thailand and verified there, said Prof Knut Erik Hovda, who advises 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 likely been poisoned by methanol.
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“The minute you have people drinking and getting sick in a high number and the symptoms start after a certain time, that is methanol until proven otherwise,” he said, “To me, this is no doubt caused by methanol.”
Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning globally, with incidents in Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, according to MSF data.
