The death toll from tainted liquor in Costa Rica has reached 25, with nearly 60 people hospitalized, officials in the Central American country said.
Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health confirmed the new total earlier this month following two more deaths from suspected methanol poisoning. It said 34 others have also been hospitalized.
The dead are 19 men and six women between ages 32 and 72, the government department said on its website. Seven died in the capital, San José.
At least 10 establishments have been shuttered and at least 55,000 containers of alcohol believed to be tainted with methanol have been seized, the ministry said.
It also widened its warning to include nine different brands of booze.
The US Embassy said last month that it was “not aware of any US citizen illness or death due to consuming adulterated alcohol in Costa Rica” in a safety alert.
Earlier this year, a spate of suspicious deaths of Americans in the Dominican Republic, which devastated tourism to the island, was also being investigated for possible poisoning from counterfeit booze.
The FBI has not yet released the results of its probe.