Seafood poisoning
When you eat the flesh of contaminated fish, you get seafood poisoning.
Causes of seafood poisoning: Seafood poisoning is due to viral and bacterial contamination of seafood and due to eating bony fish or shellfish due to the action of one of three toxins-ciguatera, tetraodon, or histamine.
Ciguatera: This comprises over 50% of cases of seafood poisoning. It occurs in warm waters, usually in the United States in Florida and Hawaii. It is found in blue-green algae, protozoans, and dinoflagellates which are eaten by larger fish and generally comes from eating the fish’s flesh, adipose tissue, and organs.
Symptoms: Symptoms may show up within the first 2-6 hours and may go on till 48 hours. They comprise itching skin, aching teeth, numbness of the mouth and extremities, headache, painful urination, muscle aches and hot and cold sensations tingling in the lips, tongue, throat, and perioral tissues giving off a metallic taste. If the poisoning is severe, bradycardia with hypotension and cardiovascular collapse may also occur.
Treatment: Improve breathing, and circulation; expose the patient to charcoal and atropine for symptomatic bradycardia and sympathomimetics for cardiovascular support. For neurologic and muscular symptoms, give Mannitol within 24 hours of exposure.
Scombroid: If seafood is not properly stored, it results in scombroid poisoning. The patient eats fish with a peppery or bitter taste.
Symptoms: If you have a flushed face, headache, abdominal cramps, burning in the throat, nausea, a sense of unease, diarrhea, palpitations, and, loss of vision. These symptoms show up within 10-30 minutes of eating fish. You might also wheeze or suffer from hypotension or hypertension.
If you suffer from asthma, your problem will be aggravated by this. It is diagnosed based history and physical examination, while lab tests measure the concentration of histamine on fish. If your blood pressure is abnormal, your doctor might ask for an ECG.
Treatment: You will need a lot of care in terms of extra oxygen and fluids. Take histamine1- and histamine2-blockers to take away the effects of histamine and epinephrine for allergic reactions. If you are very ill, your doctor may suggest using hot charcoal.
Pufferfish poisoning: This is caused by tetrodotoxin (TTX) or blowfish poisoning or fugu. TTX is a very potent non-protein poison found naturally, and exposure to it can kill very soon.
Symptoms: Symptoms can show up within 15 minutes of eating the fish but may be detected a few hours later. They include perioral tingling, a warm feeling, a floating sensation, weakness, lack of coordination, bradycardia, slurred speech, hypotension, among other symptoms.
Treatment: Charcoal, atropine, pressors and IV fluids are usually given to treat the patient.
These forms of seafood poisoning should caution you to eat carefully when dining out.