Overview

• National authorities report 17 confirmed intoxications linked to adulterated distilled drinks with roughly 200 additional notifications under investigation and two deaths verified at the federal level.
• São Paulo accounts for about 82% of reports with 15 confirmed cases as a new task force detains 20 suspects and police seize thousands of bottles plus 316,000 counterfeit labels and related inputs.
• The Justice Ministry and Senacon identified 30 establishments suspected of adulteration for notification and requested information from 25 distributors, associations and industry entities.
• Clinical capacity has been expanded with CIATox/Unicamp able to run up to 190 tests per day, Fiocruz providing lab support, 4,300 ampoules of pharmaceutical ethanol procured, and 2,600 vials of fomepizole slated for import.
• An informal national committee was announced by Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski to coordinate actions, while several suspected cases have been discarded in states such as Ceará, Rio Grande do Sul and Minas Gerais as tracing of supply chains continues.