A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital.
The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation.
The Food and Drug Administration on March 27 listed the case as a major food poisoning outbreak, and confirmed that a 66-year-old man had also died.
Photo: Kan Meng-lin, Taipei Times
Bongkrek acid was later found in samples of blood taken from those who had died and several people who had fallen ill after eating at the restaurant from March 19 to 24. A swab taken from the hands of a cook who worked at the restaurant on those days also tested positive for bongkrek acid.
As of Friday last week, the last day that the Centers for Disease Control accepted reports of suspected food poisoning from Polam Kopitiam, 35 cases had been linked to the outbreak, including the two deaths, four people who were in intensive care and 29 who were not hospitalized or had returned home.
A 40-year-old man who was on life support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation died of multiple organ failure on Saturday last week.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) yesterday said that a 40-year-old woman who was in intensive care for about a month died of multiple organ failure early yesterday morning.
Taipei Department of Health Commissioner Chen Yen-yuan (陳彥元) said she had a serious lung infection and septic shock, and her condition had worsened over the past few days, so the hospital had told her family that the condition was irreversible.
As the woman had signed a do-not-resuscitate order, she died at about 3am yesterday, he said.
Two people are still in hospital. One with decreased consciousness and an infection, who is being evaluated for a liver transplant, and another who has undergone a liver transplant and is already improving, Chen said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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