Health Law

Local Seattle Woman Dies in Thailand from Possible Foodborne Illness

By Marler Clark

According to a news report on Seattletimes.com, the death of a local West Seattle Woman, Jill St. Onge, may have been caused by a microbial infection contracted through contaminated food consumed while on vacation in Thailand.  At this point the precise source of the microbes is unknown, although contaminated seafood is suspected.

Preliminary lab tests show that Jill and Julie Bergheim, 22, of Norway, had signs of microbial infection in blood samples taken from the two women, Krabi Provincial Police Commander Maj. Gen Pasin Noksakul told the Gazette.

Gen Pasin said that the results from the Forensics Institute were preliminary and not yet official, but it's possible the two women ate contaminated seafood.

The two women, who stayed in adjacent rooms at the Laleena guesthouse on Phi Phi Don Island at the beginning of May, died within hours of each other at Phi Phi Island Hospital after severe vomiting.

In blood samples taken from Bergheim, researchers found three different kinds of potentially harmful microbes, while blood samples from Onge had one, Gen Pasin said.

Although it is not normal procedure to release results until they are official, Gen Pasin said he wanted to quell widespread speculation over the cause of the deaths on Internet blog and chat forums.

Such theories have included exposure to toxic gas from a nearby wastewater treatment plant, problems with the air conditioning in the guest rooms, accidental overdoses of the 4 X 100 drug cocktail that has been gaining popularity in the south over the past year and even murder by poisoning.

The Forensics Institute is continuing to study the microbes to positively identify them and test their virility, according to the Gazette.

"I don't know when the official results will be released, but the commander of the Royal Thai Police has ordered the lab work expedited because the embassies of the two deceased tourists want to know the cause of the death as soon as possible," he told the Gazette.

Gen Pasin ruled out the possibility that [methane] gas emanating from the nearby wastewater treatment plant might have been the cause, saying the plant had been in the area for a long time with no ill effects on local people or tourists.

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).