• Submitted by: lena campos
• Health and Medicine
• 08 / 07 / 2013

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Eleven people have died in Cuba after consuming alcohol sold illegally on the street, according to an updated new.

"Four people remain in critical condition, two of whom are receiving hemodialysis," Efren Acosta, deputy director of Havana's provincial health department, said.

At least 60 people have been hospitalized since the poisoning was first detected on Monday, Acosta said.

Until now all deaths had occurred in Havana's western La Lisa neighborhood, but the 11th happened on the opposite side of town.

Authorities say laboratory alcohol was stolen by two employees of a state-run pharmacy institute and then sold on the street.

Methyl alcohol, or methanol, has similar characteristics to ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, which is what gives alcoholic beverages their intoxicating effect.

Methanol is commonly used in scientific laboratories, but if ingested can cause blindness or death.

The average monthly income in Cuba is 20 dollars, and many people buy food and drink of unknown origin on the black market because it is cheaper.

Cuba, the last one-party communist state in the Western Hemisphere, has been under a US economic embargo for more than half a century.

Source: AFP