BEIJING, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- At least 87 people have been diagnosed with a serious disease that can lead to meningitis, after eating raw or undercooked snails at a Beijing restaurant.
The Beijing Health Bureau said the Amazonian snails have been linked to angiostrongyliasis, a parasitic disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported.
Dr. Yin Chenghong, an expert in tropical diseases, warned against panic, saying that the disease can only be picked up by eating infected snails that have not been properly cooked. The tropical diseases department at Beijing Friendship Hospital has been inundated with people fearing that a neck ache is a first symptom.
The first case of meningitis at the hospital was reported in June in a 34-year-old man who had eaten a dish of cold snails at the Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant.
