Quasi two hundred intoxicated people after a swim in the sea. It happened in Algeria, a You got, where 178, including civil protection lifeguards, were hospitalized with lung infections accusing also, as reported by the prefect of Chlef, Lakhdar Seddas, nausea, temperature e redness of the eyes. Teams of divers were sent to the scene in search of toxic discharges.
However, the causes of this mass intoxication are not yet known: “The people who were bathing in the central beach of Tenes would have inhaled a gas which spread rapidly thanks to the wind that blew all Sunday afternoon “, explained the director of the local Health, Nasreddine Benkartalia, quoted by the official agency Aps. The prefect, on the other hand, considered the cause “more plausible than that relating to spill of a boat off the coast of Tenes “. According to the information site Ennahar Online, it is a merchant ship flying the flag of the Tanzania, the Barhom II, set sail from the port of Seven in the south of France.
But there is also another hypothesis being examined by those who are trying to reconstruct the events that led to the intoxication: Professor Réda Djebar, of the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of Bab Ezzouar in Algiers, hypothesized that a ‘toxic microscopic algae which proliferates in the Mediterranean when the temperature is high may be the cause behind these infections. In a post published on his Facebook page, Réda Djebar recalled cases similar to Mostaganem, in northwestern Algeria, in 2009, and on several other Mediterranean beaches.
The issuer Echourouk Tv he explains that three beaches on the coast of Tenes have been closed to the public and that samples have been taken to analyze the sea water. The news agency Tsa reports that as a precautionary measure, the closure of the Tenes desalination plant has been ordered.
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