OBJECTIVE To review the clinical features and laboratory investigations of ciguatera patients in Hong Kong between 2004 and 2007 in order to show the timely sampling of implicated fish from ciguatera victims and application of validated mouse bioassay for confirming suspected clinical cases of ciguatera. METHODS Diagnosis of the ciguatera victims was based on history of coral fish consumption...

BACKGROUND Ciguatera poisoning is the commonest fish-borne seafood intoxication. It is endemic to warm water tropical areas and is caused by consumption of bottom-dwelling shore reef fish, mostly during spring and summer. The causative agent, ciguatoxin, is a heat-stable ester complex that becomes concentrated in fish feeding on toxic dinoflagellates. The common clinical manifestations are a co...

AMONG THE ANIMALS that live in the sea are many that may be poisonous to eat; these animals include fish, sharks , crabs, molluscs, and turtles. Of all marine animals the most important are fish, which are for so many people an essential source of food. There are a number of different ways in which teleost fish may be poisonous. Some fish are naturally poisonous; puffers for instance are always...

Coastal waters of the United States (U.S.) are subject to many of the major harmful algal bloom (HAB) poisoning syndromes and impacts. These include paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP), amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) and various other HAB phenomena such as fish kills, loss of submerged vegetation, shellfish mortalities, an...

Ciguatera is a specific type of food poisoning associated with the ingestion of tropical fish, which, although normally safe for consumption, may at times contain high amounts of ciguatoxin, as well as other chemically related toxins. Widespread in tropical regions where coral reefs are present, ciguatera fish poisoning constitutes a major hindrance for local fishing industries, local economies...

oseltamivir for six weeks." At the end of the sixbeek period, 4.8% of the placebo group had laboratory confzmed flu compared with only 1.2% of the oseltamivir group. Additional studies are on-going analyzing both ueatment efficacy as welI as the profinitive effects of the neuraminidase inhibitors. The decision by the EM physician on whether to prescribe one of the newer neununinidase inhibitors...

We report three cases of a collective tetrodotoxin poisoning, after ingestion of puffer fish eggs. This neurotoxin is the most potent membrane stabilizer, blocking the nervous conduction and resulting in death from respiratory paralysis in case of massive ingestion. The father died at admission, the mother and her daughter presented an acute respiratory failure and a flaccid tetraplegia, with f...

Four cases of puffer fish poisoning with one death in a family are described. Acute respiratory cessation probably resulted from both depression of the medullary centres and muscular paralysis by the neurotoxin. Artificial ventilation is the single most effective therapeutic measure and should be considered in all severe cases. Delay in treatment may result in death. Anticholinesterases are not...

This article reports the most frequent cases of poisoning in farm animals, horses, cats, dogs, wild animals, fish and honey-bees in the Czech Republic. At present, there are fewer cases of acute poisoning caused by high doses of toxic substances but there are more and more cases of chronic poisoning as a consequence of environmental pollution.