VietNamNet Bridge – Hospitals in Hanoi and HCM City have recently received patients who were in critical condition after they drank the bile of carp fish for medicinal purposes.

Some Vietnamese people think that the bile of carp may treat eye diseases and ease vulvar pain, epilepsy and impotence in men. They take it directly or mix it with alcohol.

Many people have been poisoned by fish bile, with the first symptoms appearing after one to two hours. Doctors said such patients will die if they are not treated in a timely manner.

Doctors at Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City recently treated a 26-year-old woman from Bac Lieu province, who took nearly 100 portions of bile of carp to cure epilepsy.

Her mother believed that she could recover from epilepsy. For two months, the mother asked her daughter to take the bile three times a day.

The woman was hospitalized with lung and liver failure after taking it 100 times. Luckily, she survived after two weeks of emergency treatment.

A man from Long Xuyen, who was also severely poisoned, drank fish bile to enhance his sexual ability.

Some people have been poisoned by dried snake bile, said doctor Doan Uyen Vy of Cho Ray Hospital’s Anti-poison Ward.

The doctor said his ward receives nearly 10 cases of poisoning by fish and snake bile each year.

Le Ha