Traditional Medicine

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circulate Every few months, reports that a large number of people sick after A Wedding or other gathering. The diseases, often deaths are to blame for the bad alcohol; cheap homebrew the potentially lethal levels of methanol made.

Large outbreaks of methanol poisoning in the news, But the reality is that Every Day around The World people bet on a Bottle of cheap booze. And experts say that in many places, if something goes wrong, medical personnel simply did not have the awareness to ward off critical injuries or death.

In a slum area of Jakarta, Indonesia, Kardi recalls his years of drinking bootleg alcohol. It was his "energiser" for work as a motorcycle mechanic, he says.

"I don't mean to brag, But I had money. I drank Every Day . "

But One Day , one of the regular customers in his workshop in Jakarta was with a couple of cheap bootleg, known in Indonesia as oplasan. It is about 7,500 rupiah cost of a Bottle of (£0. 42; $0. 53).

"I drank eight of them," says Kardi. "I was able to work on two to three motorcycles, But I ended up not touching the fourth. I held the drink. The next thing I knew, it's 2 o'clock in the morning. "

over night it became clear he was suffering from More Than a hangover. Kardi woke up in pain in The Night with crippling stomach. "It was Like . this," he says, crunching a plastic Bottle in his hands. He tried to look sick, But "it was all black", and he finally passed Out .

Kardi says he feels lucky that he survived, when some of his friends brought A member of the family takes him to a hospital, But the staff refused to treat him, as he says, because they were Muslims, and he had been drinking - not a rarity. A second hospital was also turning him away, by chance, he had fixed the bike by one of The Doctors in the duty. This doctor agreed to treat him immediately and methanol-diagnosed poisoning.

Methanol is produced during the brewing process, and the concentration by distillation. Commercial manufacturers reduce it to a level safe for human consumption. However, unscrupulous backyard Breweries or others in the supply chain can sometimes be made of methanol, add industrially, in order to develop it further and increase profits. It is also possible that high concentrations of methanol are produced by contaminating microbes during the conventional ethanol fermentation.

overnight, Kardi body was ready, processing of the ethanol from the oplosan. Further, it began on the methanol-metabolizing it acid that is highly toxic to ants. His body became gradually more and more angry, causing him pain in the chest, stomach pain, headache, and blurred vision.

The Doctor was able to save his life, But Kardi's injuries were life-changing. He suffered a temporary full-body paralysis, and full of movement was never restored. His eyes were severely Damaged - in The Following years he lost his eyesight almost completely.

His wife has left him and he is now dependent on his community to get.

Kardi cloudy looks into The Middle distance as he says that, in a way, he was happy. Two of his drinking died Partner in this night.

', A regional taboo'", If you ask people if they have seen, methanol poisoning, you would say, no," says Dr. Knut Erik Hovda, a global expert in methanol outbreaks at the University of Oslo.

Indonesian police routinely confiscate and destroy illegal homemade alcohol "If you ask the same person to go blind if he or she has seen someone, or to die, to drink, would you say, of course, this happens all the time. And this is very specific for methanol. "

Together with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), Oslo University Set Up The Methanol-poisoning initiative (Mpi ), to get the meticulous documenting of methanol outbreaks, and an insight into the extent of the global problem.

incidents that have haunted you belong to, most of them tea-plantation workers died and many more were left Assam, blind, or disabled persons in India-the state, in a mass-poisoning. The Team documented 84 deaths in an outbreak in Iran in the last year.

"The largest outbreak in Libya was," says Dr. Hovda. "More Than 1,000 patients were admitted in less than a week, that we know that more people die from the hospital. "

Dr. Hovda said the problem is not only that the Victims know what happened, But medical personnel rarely have the knowledge and skills to such a poisoning.

the initiative is working to avoid the awareness of the need for a rapid diagnosis and treatment, unnecessary suffering and hundreds of deaths per year. You travel The World , training of staff, and developed areas, movies, and educational materials targeting The Public in the affected.

A nurse in Nicaragua to be distributed shots of rum-methanol-victim - is The Best antidote to methanol is ethanol, also you have a rapid response team that can deploy anywhere in The World once it the word of a mass outbreak.

"We have to be dazzled, these thousands of people, or to die unnecessarily," Dr. Hovda.

"can We help, if we first get people to seek help, and if you go to the hospital or healthcare provider that you can recognize it and go back to the area, these people come from, and the search for other Victims . "

is Not morality But diseaseOne of the biggest problems that you are struggling in predominantly Muslim countries such as Indonesia, that the drinking of alcohol is taboo, or even forbidden, to avoid people, seek help Out of shame or fear of exposure.

"is It really a taboo in the region," says The Doctor Chennery Lim, a doctor with MSF and a member of the Mpi .

The Methanol-poisoning Initiative flies in outbreaks around The World , Like here in Kenya ", That is the reason why, if we have the awareness, we also want to make you understand that this is a problem for the health.

"look not to the morality, it is a disease. "

It doesn't help that The Best antidote to methanol is ethanol. This also means that, if a person has been drinking both ethanol and methanol as Kardi had - it may take a while until the poisoning effect.

But also shots of vodka or gin to stave off the effects of the methanol, until the affected person to professional help and Kardi in Indonesia, doctors in countries where alcohol is taboo way can refuse the use of ethanol as a treatment, or, again, people, if you have been drinking.

" we Can treat it with Coconut Milk ?'Lhani Davies leads a charity called the Lifesaving initiatives About Methanol (LIAM), and advises tourists on How To avoid methanol and what to do if someone is poisoned.

Indonesian police conduct very public display of destroying confiscated illegal alcohol-The abbreviation was the name of your son, who died while holidaying in Indonesia in the year 2012.

aware of the dangers of methanol poisoning, she'd stayed away from the local alcohol and stuck to imported alcohol, But were not aware, The Bar staff had decanted the moonlight in the brands of bottles.

Liam fell seriously ill, But due to a series of false diagnoses, received no suitable methanol-treatment for 20 hours. He died Three Hours after he flew back to Australia.

"Two years after Liam died, we were contacted by people who had taken someone exactly the same hospital with suspected methanol poisoning, she told the BBC.

"had you called, you would be given to him, ethanol is on the way, and it really had reduced his symptoms. This is a true sign of methanol poisoning.

"you had it, and she said, no, that is not a Muslim hospital that we treat who do something with alcohol. "

she says medical staff need to be trained to recognize that the methanol poisoning is not the same as heavy alcohol consumption, and that it needs urgent and Specialist treatment.

"We go to some places, where, they say," we can treat it with Coconut Milk ? If we're treating it with Traditional Medicine , or to perform the prayers, it will be better".

"So, now we say, this is a modern, of a people issue, and it can not be treated traditionally, it needs to be treated with modern medicine. "

'you were dehumanizing says light'Ricardo Hutahaean, a community leader in the area of Kardi neighborhood, alcohol addiction is a big problem, and that The Best way to prevent people risking their lives, with the moonlight, to give them Hope .

Ricardo says, it is a way to prevent people from gambling on moonshine "they have no jobs, you don't know what you do with your life," he told the BBC. "You have dehumanized. "

He is dealing with people poisoning have survived "will help you to be more productive, to go to work" and to train you to speak, "on the dangers of this phenomenon".

"Those who have not been exposed to, we need to protect them, we will encourage them to make a meaningful and better activities, so then it can beat the negative. "

Indonesia is taking illegal alcohol seriously and regularly arrests the dealer and destroyed seized liquor.

"So, what can I say?"

travel health, alcoholism, indonesia

Source of news: bbc.com