Both residents and visitors need to be aware that they may come down with Ciguatera if the eat fish. Marine finfish most commonly implicated in ciguatera fish poisoning include the groupers, barracudas, snappers, jacks, mackerel, and triggerfish. Many other species of warm-water fishes harbor ciguatera toxins. The occurrence of toxic fish is sporadic, and not all fish of a given species or from a given locality will be toxic.
I'm posting this warning because 6 people I know have come down with ciguatera after eating fish during their vacation visit in the Dominican Republic. During the years that I was cruising the Caribbean in a sailboat, I met many people who had or had had ciguatera.
There is no way of looking at and/or smelling a fish to see if it has ciguatera. And neither cooking nor freezing kills the toxin. That is why people living in Canada, for e xample, can come down with ciguatera after eating a fish that was shipped north in a freezer.
Initial signs of poisoning occur within six hours after consumption of toxic fish and include perioral numbness and tingling (paresthesia), which may spread to the extremities, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Neurological signs include intensified paresthesia, arthralgia, myalgia, headache, temperature sensory reversal and acute sensitivity to temperature extremes, vertigo, and muscular weakness to the point of prostration. Cardiovascular signs include arrhythmia, bradycardia or tachycardia, and reduced blood pressure. Ciguatera poisoning is usually self-limiting, and signs of poisoning often subside within several days from onset. However, in severe cases the neurological symptoms are known to persist from weeks to months. In a few isolated cases neurological symptoms have persisted for several years, and in other cases recovered patients have experienced recurrence of neurological symptoms months to years after recovery. Such relapses are most often associated with changes in dietary habits or with consumption of alcohol. There is a low incidence of death resulting from respiratory and cardiovascular failure.
Most recently, 4 or 6 people who returned to Canada on Monday are suffering from ciguatera that they got from the fish they ate Sunday night. Today they consulted their family doctor, who sent them to a gastroenterologist--but neither had any idea what was causing their symptoms. WhenI learned about it, I urged them to go back to the doctor and tell him they suspect ciguatera.
Clinical testing procedures are not presently available for the diagnosis of ciguatera in humans. Diagnosis is based entirely on symptomology and recent dietary history.
Quick diagnosis is important because there is a product that is given intraveniously that can significanty speed recovery. But if treatment isn't started soon after the symptoms appear, nothing can be done but let it run its course.
I'm posting this warning because 6 people I know have come down with ciguatera after eating fish during their vacation visit in the Dominican Republic. During the years that I was cruising the Caribbean in a sailboat, I met many people who had or had had ciguatera.
There is no way of looking at and/or smelling a fish to see if it has ciguatera. And neither cooking nor freezing kills the toxin. That is why people living in Canada, for e xample, can come down with ciguatera after eating a fish that was shipped north in a freezer.
Initial signs of poisoning occur within six hours after consumption of toxic fish and include perioral numbness and tingling (paresthesia), which may spread to the extremities, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Neurological signs include intensified paresthesia, arthralgia, myalgia, headache, temperature sensory reversal and acute sensitivity to temperature extremes, vertigo, and muscular weakness to the point of prostration. Cardiovascular signs include arrhythmia, bradycardia or tachycardia, and reduced blood pressure. Ciguatera poisoning is usually self-limiting, and signs of poisoning often subside within several days from onset. However, in severe cases the neurological symptoms are known to persist from weeks to months. In a few isolated cases neurological symptoms have persisted for several years, and in other cases recovered patients have experienced recurrence of neurological symptoms months to years after recovery. Such relapses are most often associated with changes in dietary habits or with consumption of alcohol. There is a low incidence of death resulting from respiratory and cardiovascular failure.
Most recently, 4 or 6 people who returned to Canada on Monday are suffering from ciguatera that they got from the fish they ate Sunday night. Today they consulted their family doctor, who sent them to a gastroenterologist--but neither had any idea what was causing their symptoms. WhenI learned about it, I urged them to go back to the doctor and tell him they suspect ciguatera.
Clinical testing procedures are not presently available for the diagnosis of ciguatera in humans. Diagnosis is based entirely on symptomology and recent dietary history.
Quick diagnosis is important because there is a product that is given intraveniously that can significanty speed recovery. But if treatment isn't started soon after the symptoms appear, nothing can be done but let it run its course.