Two patients who fell ill after eating raw or undercooked snails in Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant have received compensation from the restaurant in Beijing.
Restaurant staff on Wednesday went to the Friendship Hospital, where most of the "snail" patients are hospitalized, and presented a patient surnamed Zhang with more than 20,000 yuan (about US$2,500) in compensation.
Zhang is the second patient to receive compensation from the restaurant.
Altogether 87 people fell ill after eating the raw or undercooked snails in Beijing.
Zhang's colleague, surnamed Chen, received 25,667.09 yuan (about US$3,200) compensation on Monday.
The two went to the restaurant, which mainly serves Sichuan-style dishes, and ordered the snails on July 6.
Chen said he signed an agreement with the restaurant before receiving the compensation, specifying that the money is only compensation for medical costs and does not cover time off work and mental suffering.
Chen said he thought the restaurant's attitude regarding the compensation was positive, but "it happened too slowly."
The patient said he received the compensation 32 days after he was hospitalized.
The restaurant's chief administrative official, surnamed Yue, said Shuguo Yanyi will pay the medical costs of all the patients who ate the snails in the restaurant.
Yue added that other types of compensation could be awarded but criteria needed to be worked out.
The 87 "snail" patients were diagnosed with a type of angiostrongyliasis, a disease caused by parasites that affects the brain and spinal cord, and can lead to meningitis, according to the Beijing Health Bureau.
To date, no death has been reported.
The bureau confirmed in its earlier report that the infection was caused by processing problems in the restaurant, which failed to eradicate eel worms on the snails.
The municipal food safety office ordered that all agricultural markets, supermarkets, department stores and restaurants in Beijing must stop buying, selling and processing the snails.
(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2006)
