Most people are aware of the dangers involved in eating fugu, the Japanese delicacy made from the poisonous pufferfish, which if not prepared correctly will kill those who eat it. However, something as common and apparently as safe as grouper can bring with it some very nasty after-effects.
Ciguatoxin is Produced by Algae
Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP) starts off with algae called Gambierdiscus toxicus, which grows on coral reefs in warm, tropical water. The algae are eaten by small fish that form the diet of large, carnivorous fish such as snapper and kingfish. The poison from the algae accumulates in the larger fish that end up on someone’s dinner plate. The toxin concentrates as it moves up the food chain.
The problem with CFP is that the poison is not destroyed by cooking nor is it detectable by taste.
A warning notice was issued by Fraser Health, British Columbia on March 29, 2007: “It is impossible for the consumer to distinguish between toxic and non-toxic fish because the colour as well as the external and internal appearance of the fish are similar. Cooking or freezing the fish does not affect the toxins.”
Condition not Limited to Tropics
It isn’t necessary to be enjoying boiled grouper in the Bahamas, or pan-fried Australian bass somewhere on the Great Barrier Reef to come down with an attack of CFP. The point of the Fraser Health bulletin was to alert people to the presence of toxins in rock cod imported from tropical locales.
MSNBC reported on February 26, 2009 that, “In 2007, 10 people in St. Louis who ate imported fish at two restaurants were sickened with ciguatera.”
Extremely Unpleasant Symptoms of Ciguatera
Fraser Health says the symptoms of ciguatera include the ones usually association with food poisoning such as “vomiting, cramps, and/or diarrhea with myalgia (muscle pain), arthralgia (joint pain), pruritis (itchiness), aching teeth, malaise, or headache.”
That’s the good news.
“Neurological symptoms [include] dry mouth, perioral/throat paresthesia, metallic taste, paresthesia/tingling of extremities, blurred vision, photophobia, and transient blindness. Severe cases may have temperature sensation reversal (hot things feel cold; cold things evoke an electric/burning sensation), bradycardia (slowed heart beat), hypotension, cranial nerve palsies, flaccid paralysis, and respiratory paralysis.”
The even worse news is that there is no cure and symptoms “can persist from days to several months.”
Personal Experiences with Ciguatera Fish Poisoning
On March 17, 2007 The Virginian-Pilot reported the story who Terree Neal of Norfolk, Virginia who ate grouper while on holiday in the Bahamas.
“Within an hour, she thought she was having a stroke. Her extremities went numb, she had vertigo and trouble breathing. Two months later, her right arm still doesn’t work well enough to put a clip in her hair."
JoNel Aleccia, Health writer for msnbc.com recounted the experience of Donna Schroeder in an online article entitled “Bizarre Fish Poisoning Sparks Alarm.”
“Within hours of the…dinner, Schroeder was stricken not only with typical nasty food poisoning symptoms - diarrhea, vomiting, and fatigue - but also with a dangerously slow heart rate and neurological problems that caused her hands and feet to tingle painfully and, oddest of all, reversed her sense of hot and cold.”
The affliction is said to hit about 500,000 people a year, but nobody knows for sure because Ciguatera Fish Poisoning is often misdiagnosed.
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