Out of danger. The eleven-year-old who contracted botulism during the now-infamous Latino party in late July in Monserrato, which claimed the lives of two attendees who ate guacamole contaminated with the killer ecotoxin, is expected to be discharged and return home as early as next week.

The child was the first patient in whom Brotzu Pediatrics doctors detected symptoms of poisoning: without waiting for the results of confirmatory tests, they administered the serum. A decision that likely saved his life: the effect of the "poison" was halted, the child was transferred to the intensive care unit at Gemelli Hospital, and after several invasive treatments, his condition slowly improved. He is now no longer in intensive care and can move around on his own.

Good news in a tragic story that has claimed two lives. The first was Roberta Pitzalis, 38, originally from Guasila : she was the first to be admitted to the hospital, at Brotzu, but her case wasn't immediately linked to botulinum toxin. The diagnosis came only after other hospitalizations were discovered, both at the Policlinico and Brotzu. She died on August 8th. Eleven days later, Valeria Sollai, 62, from Monserrato, also stopped breathing : her condition immediately appeared serious, and she died on August 19th.

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)

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