Fish lovers Beware!

Bizarre fish poisoning sparks alarm

Little-known ciguatera infection switches victims' sensations of hot and cold

Grouper, open-mouthed coral variety, are among reef fish known to harbor ciguatera, a fish-borne food illness that can cause strange symptoms and lingering illness in humans.

By JoNel Aleccia

Health writer

msnbc.com

updated 8:30 a.m. ET, Thurs., Feb. 26, 2009

The fish was delicious, no doubt about it.
Perfectly seasoned and cooked just right, the broiled grouper on the Texas menu last summer tempted Donna Schroeder to eat every bite.
The only problem? It was poisoned, tainted with a hard-to-detect toxin that produces symptoms so bizarre, they put peanut-linked salmonella infections to shame.


“It’s horrible, I’m telling you,” said Schroeder, 65, a retired Beaumont, Texas, realtor, who is only now recovering from the worst symptoms of ciguatera fish poisoning, an exotic foodborne illness that health officials say may be dramatically under-recognized in the United States.
The malady afflicts at least 50,000 people a year worldwide — and the real number may be 100 times that many. While ciguatera fish poisoning is largely unknown in most of the U.S., several recent cases have attracted growing concern, officials say. They hope a greater awareness will help alert consumers and doctors and improve treatment of the incurable illness caused by coral algae toxins that accumulate in large tropical reef fish.

Within hours of the July 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. Some patients also say they feel like their teeth are falling out — and the symptoms can linger for years.

The following species may pose a danger of ciguatera fish poisoning:

— Moray eel

— Barracuda

— Grouper

— Kingfish

— Jacks

— Snapper

— Surgeonfish

— Parrot fish

— Wrasses

— Hogfish

— Narrow barred Spanish mackerel

— Coral trout

— Flowery cod

— Red emperor

to continue with this article to describe more symptoms, and other places this has occurred go to this link

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29392319/