Guangdong Jieyang 3 people eat puffer fish poisoning, 1 person died!

On December 17, the official website of the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission released the latest information on public health emergencies in the province: in November 2021 (00:00 on November 1 to 24:00 on November 30), 21 prefectures and cities in the province reported 1 public health emergency at or above the general level in addition to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, and 1 incident of food poisoning of puffer fish reported in Jieyang, with 3 cases of illness and 1 death, and the event level was larger.

It is worth noting that in February this year, Guangdong Jieyang also reported incidents of poisoning from eating puffer fish, with a cumulative incidence of 2 people and 2 deaths.

Is it good to eat puffer fish? The Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention reminds that puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, tetrodotoxin is heat-resistant, and it is difficult to remove the toxin by home cooking methods.

Puffer fish poisoning is urgent, the incubation period is 30 minutes to 6 hours, the poisoned person first feels the fingers, lips and tongue tip numbness or tingling sensation, and then there is nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms, and there are limb weakness, lips, tongue tip, limb paralysis, and then limb muscle paralysis, body swaying, walking difficulties, and even general paralysis, severe cases can die due to respiratory failure.

There is no specific treatment for puffer fish poisoning, and the symptomatic treatment is the mainstay. The mortality rate of puffer fish poisoning is 40% to 50%, and death from poisoning usually occurs 4 to 6 hours after the onset of illness, with the fastest death occurring within 10 minutes of illness.

Disease control experts remind that although most of the tetrodotoxin poisoning in our province is mainly based on eating pufferfish, there is more than one kind of puffer fish containing tetrodotoxin, and there have been previous incidents of tetrodotoxin poisoning caused by eating cloud-spotted bare-cheeked gobies and snails.

In response to the recent continuous food poisoning incidents in Guangdong caused by consumers purchasing and processing puffer fish or eating puffer fish at restaurants, the Guangdong Provincial Market Supervision Bureau issued a food safety risk tip: Beware of food poisoning caused by eating puffer fish.

At present, Guangdong prohibits the operation of farmed puffer fish live fish and unprocessed puffer fish whole fish. The processing of all species of wild puffer fish is prohibited. Therefore, the legally farmed and edible puffer fish that can be purchased on the market are not live fish, but slaughtered fish skins or fish meat products, and all the puffer fish in circulation have traceable QR codes on the outer packaging.

The Guangdong Provincial Market Supervision Bureau reminds consumers not to buy, not to catch and eat wild puffer fish, and not to buy or eat whole puffer fish or puffer fish products processed by agricultural product processing enterprises that have not been approved by the state. Food business operators selling live puffer fish, wild puffer fish and their products, and catering service units processing and making live puffer fish and wild puffer fish are all illegal acts and will be punished by law.

[Reporter] Zhu Xiaofeng

【Author】 Zhu Xiaofeng

Guangdong health headlines