Nurses take care of 17 botulism patients in serious condition who were transferred from Nan to Bangkok in a Royal Thai Air Force C130 transport aircraft yesterday. The patients were later admitted to hospitals in the city better equipped to deal with the

Health and military officials will study the bacterium that caused the Nan botulism incident to see how it could be used to make a biological weapon so they have a better understanding of its dangers, Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat said yesterday.

Pinij told a press conference the mass poisoning provided a rare opportunity to study the bacterium, which was found in fermented bamboo roots in the northern province and can be used to produce botulinum toxin - the most poisonous substance known to man.

The Public Health Ministry, the Ministry of Science and Technology  nd the military-run Phramongkutklao Hospital would study the process of producing lethal biological weapons out of the clostridium botulinum that caused 161 people to fall sick in Nan, he said.  "With the study, we will know how to make a bio-weapon. That's why I ordered this study. We've got to know how to produce such a bio-weapon to prevent [possible abuse of the bacterium]," Pinij said after 17 of the botulism patients whose conditions were critical arrived in Bangkok for further treatment.

The patients - 12 women, four men and a girl - were brought to Bangkok on a C130 Royal Thai Air force transport plane. They were all on life-support systems and mostly unconscious, with a few able to roll their eyes and move their hands.

The patients were transferred to better-equipped hospitals in the city including Ramathibodi, Siriraj and Chulalongkorn.

Having so many patients at once, the university hospitals hope to use the Nan incident as a case study in which to learn more about the treatment of the bacteria and why it is so deadly.

Another nine seriously ill patients were transferred to nearby northern provinces including Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok and Lampang, Pinij said.

"This is very exciting for the country's medical and scientific circles given the sizeable number of affected patients," he said, adding that only four to five botulism cases had been reported at any one time several years ago.

Pinij said he was told by military bio-weapons experts that the strain found in the Nan bamboo roots was one of the most virulent subtypes of the bacterium that causes botulism. It is so deadly a mere 0.5mg synthesised into a bio-weapon could kill up to 500,000 people.

Apart from studying how to make the bio-weapon using the bacterium, Pinij said, an in-depth study of the bacterium found in the fermented bamboo roots in Nan would try to determine how the strain was formed. At least three cans of the contaminated bamboo roots were seized by the Food and Drug Administration.

The ministry has also been checking on fermented bamboo roots produced in nearby areas in Phitsanulok, Loei, Phayao and Chiang Rai provinces as well as other districts of Nan.

The government had approved a special budget of Bt33 million to support the treatment of the patients and the study of the Nan botulism outbreak. About 60 patients with mild botulism remain at Nan Hospital and more than 70 have been discharged.

Meanwhile, 23 more doses of botulism antitoxin serum arrived in Bangkok from Japan yesterday to be sent to Nan for the treatment of the remaining patients. Dr Kumi Ueno, an emerging disease expert, was also expected in Nan to study the incident.

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation