According to the Chinese media, 87 people are now infected with meningitis after eating undercooked snails at a Beijing restaurant.
They have been diagnosed with a type of angiostrongyliasis, a disease caused by parasites that affects the brain and spinal cord, which can lead to meningitis.
Most became sick after eating raw or half-cooked Amazonian snails contaminated with parasites at a restaurant specializing in Sichuan-style cooking.
The Tropical Diseases Department of the Beijing Friendship Hospital, which specializes in treating the disease, has opened three more clinics and extended consultations, with each doctor seeing nearly 100 people a day, and they still apparently cannot cope with the numbers who believe they have the disease.
Sixteen have been hospitalised and are in a critical condition.
Chinese authorities have traced the problem to the Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant which has made an official apology to customers and is cooperating with the Beijing Health Bureau in the investigation.
The restaurant is prepared to compensate those who fell ill after eating the snails.
According to the Beijing Health Bureau, treatment for each patient will cost at least 3,000 yuan (U.S. $375).
The patients range in age from 13 to 51 years old and all ate raw or undercooked Amazonian snails two to four weeks ago in outlets of the Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant.
Tests on snails taken from the restaurant found several infected with a meningitis-causing parasite.
The disease can have lon-lasting effects such as headaches and dementia, and health authorities say on-going medical treatment will be needed to ensure the patients' complete recovery.