2 die after eating toxic cockles
The New Paper | Thu Jan 10 2013
6 people suffered from paralytic shellfish poisoning following the red-tide phenomenon in Sabah.
Malaysia, January 10, 2013
Six people suffered from paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) - a serious illness - following the red-tide phenomenon in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah state in Malaysia.
Two victims in a hospital's intensive care unit last Tuesday later succumbed to severe allergic reactions.
The first victim, a 14-year-old boy, died at his home last Wednesday after being discharged, while a nine-year-old boy was pronounced dead in the hospital two days later, reported the New Straits Times.
The boys had collected the cockles from the seafront at Sepanggar and were said to have eaten them raw, reported Malaysia's The Star.
State Health director Christina Rundi confirmed that the department received a notification regarding food poisoning cases involving six people last Wednesday.
She said: "All the patients had consumed shellfish contaminated with red-tide toxin around noon on Jan 1. The shellfish were picked up from Sepanggar waters.
"Between 3pm and 6pm, the patients experienced symptoms such as numbness in the neck, vomiting, dizziness and shortness of breath."
She added that the department had sent samples of the contaminated shellfish and seawater to the state fisheries department, where results showed a high presence of PSP toxin.
Symptoms
Deputy Health Minister Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin advised residents in the state to seek treatment at hospitals immediately if they experienced symptoms such as numbness and breathing difficulty after consuming cockles.
"In the wake of the red-tide phenomenon, they should refrain from consuming shellfish and bivalve shellfish (clams, oysters, scallops and mussels).
"However, should they crave such food, they should eat those that were not obtained from waters off Sabah's west coast," she said.
On Saturday, state fisheries director Rayner Stuel Galid said the latest red-tide reading carried out in waters along Sepanggar Bay was recorded at 6,000 mouse unit (MU).
This indicates high toxicity, as reading as low as 400MU is considered dangerous to humans.
He advised people to avoid eating oysters, mussels, cockles and any type of clam, though other marine products like fish, prawns and crabs were safe for consumption.
He said that while red tide has been seen in waters off Papar, Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran in the west coast, they have not received any reports from the east coast.
Red tide is an occasional natural phenomenon in Sabah, where microorganisms (dinoflagellate), which live in the sea, undergo a population explosion.
The red-tide phenomenon is expected to continue until May.
