Outbreak description In mid-May 2012, a primary healthcare centre in Tenerife reported a case compatible with ciguatera food poisoning, according to the criteria established by the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Ciguatera poisoning in the Canary Islands (SVEICC) [1]. The next day, another primary healthcare centre located in a different town notified a second compatible case. The secon...

There is great concern regarding the risk of nosocomial poisoning in staff caring for the organophosphate (OP) pesticide poisoned patient in prehospital, ED and intensive care settings. In many instances, elaborate nursing practices including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been developed in order to reduce this risk. Elsewhere, HAZMAT responses have been instituted in respo...

A 52 year old man developed a supranuclear gaze palsy and opsoclonus after Diazinon poisoning. The diagnosis was confirmed by low plasma and red blood cell cholinesterase activity and urine mass spectroscopy. Saccadic control may be mediated in part by acetylcholine. Opsoclonus in the setting of organophosphate intoxication may occur as a result of cholinergic excess which overactivates the fas...

The advisability or otherwise of carrying out routine gastric lavage in cases of kerosene poisoning is still much debated (Olstad and Lord, 1952; Gerarde, 1959; Capel and Gardner, 1960; George, 1960; Ashkenazi and Berman, 1961). The most recent and comprehensive study has been carried out by the American Pediatric Association (Report of the Subcommittee on Accidental Poisoning, 1962). However, ...

OBJECTIVE Exposure to organophosphates (OP) may lead to a life threatening cholinergic crisis with death attributed to a rapidly progressive respiratory failure. In a toxicological mass casualty event involving organophosphate exposure, many of the victims may depend on immediate short-term ventilation to overcome the respiratory distress which may exhaust life supporting resources. In addition...

The word biomarker is being used more frequently during the last decade. Currently, a great amount of research is directed to fnd toxicological biomarkers for several different chemical substances, since persons are more exposed now than decades before. For this reason, it is important to perform a biomonitoring of such substances in order to assess the possibility that low quantities could cau...

An 89-year-old man attempted suicide by ingesting a pesticide (trichlorfon). After surviving the initial critical period in the intensive care unit, he developed rapidly progressive distal weakness and sensory disturbance. Electrophysiological examinations revealed sensory motor axonal polyneuropathy. Delayed polyneuropathy is a rare manifestation of organophosphate poisoning. Nerve conduction ...

The highly toxic nature of tabun has been known for many years, but there are still serious limitations to antidotal therapy. In this study, we used rats as an experimental model to evaluate the efficiency of bispyridinium para-oxime K203 as therapy against tabun poisoning as well as to examine if induction of oxidative stress is linked to organophosphate toxicity. K203 showed high potency in c...

Enzyme therapy for the prevention and treatment of organophosphate poisoning depends on the availability of large amounts of cholinesterases. Transgenic plants are being evaluated for their efficiency and cost-effectiveness as a system for the bioproduction of therapeutically valuable proteins. Here we report production of a recombinant isoform of human acetylcholinesterase in transgenic tomato...