Four patients with botulism, including an 11-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, were hospitalized in serious condition between Brotzu and Policlinico Hospital in recent days after eating at a kiosk at the Festa Latina festival in Monserrato last week. This was until this afternoon, when two more patients with severe symptoms presented to Brotzu Hospital, bringing the total number of hospitalized patients to six.

The painting

According to leaks, the patients felt ill after attending the Latino Party. All had one thing in common: they ate tacos and guacamole. The rush to the hospital resulted in their admission. Specifically, the fourteen-year-old was transferred to the intensive care unit at Duilio Casula (a hospital that also houses a sixty-two-year-old), while the eleven-year-old was intubated in the pediatric ward at Brotzu Hospital and was transferred by helicopter this morning to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome. Another thirty-eight-year-old woman is also being treated in Piazzale Ricchi.

In the afternoon, the overall situation worsened: the eleven-year-old's father and another man were taken to the Neurology department. One of them is in serious condition. Both were treated with serum.

Botulinum Poisoning: What It Is and Its Symptoms

According to the clinical reconstruction, the poisoning was caused by botulinum, a food-borne bacterium that releases a dangerous neurotoxin, ingested during a single activity, which has been identified.

So much so that the Sian of the Ogliastra ASL has started checks on the street food truck that is now in Porto Frailis with the rest of the itinerant caravan.

THE MAYOR

"It didn't happen during the last sheep festival," explains Monserrato Mayor Tomaso Locci, "but we're awaiting feedback from the relevant authorities, also to determine what type of poisoning it was. In the meantime," the mayor emphasizes, "we all hope the conditions of those involved improve."

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