a1513: AP: Two arrested for Haitian coffee poisoning (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Haitian police arrest two suspects in mysterious coffee
poisonings

By MICHAEL NORTON
Associated Press
Posted March 26 2002, 12:38 PM EST

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Police have arrested two people
suspected of poisoning a batch of coffee that killed two
children and sickened more than 70 people, a government
health official said Tuesday.

Some 74 people fell sick within hours after they drank the
morning coffee brewed and sold by a sidewalk vendor early
Sunday morning in Passe-a-Roche, a locality outside the
town of Marchand Dessalines, 85 kilometers (53 miles)
northwest of the capital.











Neighbors told police the two suspects had a recent
altercation with the female coffee vendor. All the people
reportedly became sick after drinking the coffee, which was
sent to the United States for testing.

Two boys _ ages 2 and 4 _ died before being hospitalized
after suffering from vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea and
headaches. An autopsy showed they died from cardiac arrest.
Haitians, including young children, often begin the day
with a cup of sweet coffee and a roll.

Most of the victims, including the female vendor, were
hospitalized in the Marchand Dessalines hospital. Sixty
were sent home Monday. The vendor remained in hospital on
Tuesday.

Seven patients were transported to the State University
Hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince. One of the
patients, a 5-year-old girl, is critically ill, said
Lubrene Bienaime, a private-cabinet aide of Health Minister
Henri-Claude Voltaire.

``It has not yet been scientifically proved the toxic
substance in the coffee was a poison deliberately added to
the brew,'' said Bienaime.

``Maybe it was accidental,'' he said.


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