Food Poisoning from Fish

When it comes to food borne illness or food poisoning, consuming food items that are contaminated with pathogens, intestinal parasites or their toxins is the exclusive causal reason. For example, eating unpalatable mushroom varieties result in unusual medical symptoms because of the toxins. As far as food poisoning from fish is concerned, disease causing microbes or toxins enter the body after consuming raw or cooked fish. Such a medical condition is partly resulted due to chemical pollution in water bodies, from where the fish are being caught for selling in the market.

Symptoms

Whether you are referring to food poisoning from shrimp or other fish species, the mode of intoxication takes place in two ways. Considering this, there are basically two types of food poisoning from fish, viz. scombroid and ciguatera poisoning. Depending upon the contaminating agent, amount of fish consumed and the patient's health condition, the symptoms are manifested after 30 minutes or 24 hours after consuming spoiled fish. With respect to the root causes, the poisoning symptoms caused by consumption of spoiled fish are highlighted below.

Ciguatera Poisoning Symptoms
It is the leading seafood poisoning type all over the world. Over here, the cause is eating reef fish (from tropical water bodies), wherein, the flesh of the fish is fouled with toxins. And the worst part is that the harmful substances are retained like that after preparation. The notable signs of this foodborne illness are:

• Abdominal discomfort
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Itchy skin
• Numbness
• Tingling
• Headache
• Muscle pain
• Sensitivity to temperature

Scombroid Poisoning Symptoms
In contrary to ciguatera fish poisoning, the scombroid type is resulted after eating decayed fish. To be more precise, certain fish after being exposed to very high temperatures get spoiled because of excess histamine accumulation, which when consumed leads to scombroid fish poisoning. Manifested food poisoning signs with this type are:

• Unusual reddening of face
• Abdominal pain
• Dizziness
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Skin hives

As you see, in most cases, the symptoms are attributed to digestive problems. For untreated condition, the toxins affect other parts of the body system, including the extremities, resulting in various signs and symptoms. Thus, to avoid serious medical problems, patients with food poisoning symptoms should take medical attention at the earliest possible time.

Treatment

Speaking about how to treat food poisoning from fish, there are no particular methods as such. For all patients, the main objective for therapeutic intervention is management of the symptoms and preventing medical complications (if any). People with ciguatera poisoning will be prescribed therapeutic treatment with respect to their medical signs. In case of scombroid poisoning, the health conditions are caused due to reactions of the body's immune system to histamine. Hence, treatment of the same is done with antihistamine medications to combat the allergic symptoms.

In healthy adults, the symptoms of scombroid poisoning will subside gradually within one day or so. Whereas, with ciguatera poisoning, the symptoms of disease may persist for as long as 1-2 weeks. The best treatment approach is avoiding the risk factors as far as possible. Food poisoning from sushi are also reported in many instances. Hence, for those who crave for sushi or similar delicacies that are prepared with raw fish, care should be taken while eating them from outside or preparing at home.

The logic is to avoid fish that are usually contaminated with toxins. By doing so, you can minimize the risk of ciguatera food poisoning. Regarding scombroid type of food poisoning, eat only those fish that are preserved in cold storage method.