Overview

• São Paulo updated its tally to 18 laboratory‑confirmed methanol poisonings, 3 confirmed deaths and 158 cases under investigation, with 85 suspicions discarded.
• The Justice Ministry announced an informal national coordination committee and said roughly 30 establishments suspected of selling adulterated drinks have been identified for notification.
• State and local operations intensified with 20 arrests in a week, the seizure of more than 100,000 empty containers from a clandestine site, and the interdiction or suspension of multiple bars and distributors.
• Health authorities expanded testing capacity through CIATox/Unicamp and Fiocruz support, distributed ethanol farmacêutico, and expect 2,600 imported fomepizole units, with states such as Ceará receiving new antidote stocks.
• Investigations focus on reuse of bottles and possible use of methanol to bulk up falsified spirits, while federal police examine a hypothesis involving abandoned fuel‑sector methanol tanks.