All "snail patients" in Beijing recovered
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-30 10:32

All 160 victims of a parasitic disease contracted by eating undercooked snails in Beijing have recovered, the Beijing Municipal Public Health Bureau said Friday.

All patients hospitalized at Beijing Friendship Hospital left for home by Thursday, three days before the National Day that falls on Oct. 1, according to doctors with the hospital's tropical disease institute.

Nearly 141 patients, 25 in serious condition, had been hospitalized at Beijing Friendship Hospital over the past two months and many left after three week-long treatment there, the doctors said.

The last three patients at Xuanwu Chinese Medicine Hospital will also be discharged soon, so they can spend the traditional Mid-Autumn Day with their families, doctors of the hospital said.

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau has reported a total of 160 people infected with a type of angiostrongyliasis, a disease caused by parasites that affect the brain and spinal cord, which can lead to meningitis, after eating raw or undercooked snails since June 24.

Most of them ate the snails at the Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant serving Sichuan-style dishes.

No deaths have been reported.