Botulinum: Second victim in Sardinia, Valeria Sollai also attended the Fiesta Latina del Guacamole.
In Monserrato
She was admitted to intensive care at the Monserrato Polyclinic after the party in late July. She was 62 years old. The situation of the only suspect is worsening.
Another death attributed to presumed botulism poisoning in Sardinia . Her name was Valeria Sollai , 62 years old, and she died last night at the Monserrato Polyclinic. She had been hospitalized for weeks in the intensive care unit of the university hospital. She had also attended the Fiesta Latina in Monserrato, near the metropolitan city of Cagliari , at the end of July. The main culprit was the guacamole used in some dishes. The first victim was Roberta Pitzalis , 36 years old.
Pitzalis died on August 8th at the Businco Hospital in Cagliari, also from bacterial poisoning, as confirmed by an autopsy. The young woman had also suffered from hemorrhagic pneumonia related to the intubation she had undergone during her hospitalization. The situation of the only suspect, the owner of one of the kiosks at the festival, has now worsened. The number of botulism poisoning cases in Calabria has risen to ten, resulting in two deaths and at least fifteen other people being hospitalized in Cosenza hospital. The charges include various counts of manslaughter, negligent personal injury, and trafficking in harmful food substances.
Ten people are under investigation, including six doctors, the street vendor, and three managers of manufacturing companies, all under scrutiny by the Paola Public Prosecutor's Office. The Ministry of Health had published on its official website a recall of two batches of broccoli rabe due to a suspected contamination risk. According to analyses by the Italian National Institute of Health ( ISS ), the cause of the poisoning was multiple foods, not just the broccoli rabe used to top sausage sandwiches sold at a food truck by a street vendor in Diamante, in the province of Cosenza. There were also two victims in that case: Luigi di Sarno, a 52-year-old from Cercola, and Tamara D'Acunto, a 45-year-old from Diamante.
l'Unità
