Snail meningitis scare widens in China capital

BEIJING, Aug 22 (Reuters) The number of people who have contracted meningitis from eating snails in Beijing has risen to 70, a state newspaper said today.

Health authorities had warned people not to eat raw or undercooked snails and have banned the sale of uncooked snails in restaurants, the China Daily said on its Web site (www.chinadaily.com.cn).

Many of the victims had eaten a dish made with the Amazonian snails at a chain of Sichuan restaurants, the China Daily said.

The snails have also been blamed for destroying rice fields in southwestern China.

China has been struggling to control a rise in the number of food-related health incidents.

In 2004, a major health scandal erupted when China revealed that at least 13 babies had died from malnutrition in the country's impoverished eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby milk.

And several cases of bird flu, which has infected 21 people, have been traced back to people eating sick birds.

REUTERS SK BST0651