Clinical diagnosis and chemical confirmation of ciguatera fish poisoning in New South Wales, Australia.

Clinical diagnosis and chemical confirmation of ciguatera fish poisoning in New South Wales, Australia. Commun Dis Intell Q Rep. 2016;40(1):E1-6 Authors: Farrell H, Zammit A, Manning J, Shadbolt C, Szabo L, Harwood DT, McNabb P, Turahui JA, van den Berg DJ Abstract Ciguatera fish poisoning is common in tropical and sub-tropical areas and larger fish (> 10 kg) are more susceptible to toxin accumulation with age. Although the coastal climate of northern New South Wales is considered sub-tropical, prior to 2014 there has only been 1 documented outbreak of ciguatera fish poisoning from fish caught in the region. During February and March 2014, 2 outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning involved 4 and 9 individuals, respectively, both following consumption of Spanish mackerel from northern New South Wales coastal waters (Evans Head and Scotts Head). Affected individuals suffered a combination of gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms requiring hospital treatment. At least 1 individual was symptomatic up to 7 months later. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry detected the compound Pacific ciguatoxin-1B at levels up to 1.0 µg kg-1 in fish tissue from both outbreaks. During April 2015, another outbreak of ciguatera fish poisoning was reported in 4 individuals. The fish implicated in the outbreak was caught further south than the 2014 outbreaks (South West Rocks). Fish tissue was unavailable for analysis; however, symptoms we...
Source: Communicable Diseases Intelligence Quarterly Report - Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: Commun Dis Intell Q Rep Source Type: research