KUALA LUMPUR: A food poisoning outbreak has so far claimed the lives of four people after they ate at a branch of Malaysian restaurant Polam Kopitiam in Taiwan recently.
Taiwanese Deputy Health Minister Victor Wang said the fourth victim, a woman aged 40, died on Monday due to multiple organ failure.
According to Taiwanese news outlet Focus Taiwan, the latest death was the second in three days, after it was confirmed a patient also died of multiple organ failure on Saturday. Two more people died last month.
The latest victim, according to other Taiwanese media outlets, had eaten kway teow at the Xinyi, Taipei, branch of the restaurant chain in mid-March and developed symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea after returning home.
Wang told the media on Monday morning that the woman had been treated in intensive care for over a month.
Her condition had worsened due to multiple organ failure and infection, prompting her family to give up on the emergency treatment, he said.
According to Focus Taiwan, so far, 35 people had been reported to have fallen ill after eating at the restaurant from March 18-24, including three people who were hospitalised in intensive care.
The latest person to die had been one of those severe cases.
Currently, one of the two patients still in intensive care has undergone liver transplant surgery, while the other continues to receive treatment in the unit, said Wang.