California Warns Consumers Not to Eat Anchovies, Sardines, Crab : Domoic acid (Biotoxin)

Food Poisoning Bulletin

California Warns Consumers Not to Eat Anchovies, Sardines, Crab

April 12, 2014 by Linda Larsen

The California Department of Public Health is warning consumers not to eat commercially or recreationally caught anchovies or sardines or the internal organs of crab from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. Dangerous levels of domoic acid have been found in some of these species and could be found in other species.
 

Domoic acid is produced by phytoplankton, a type of algae, and accumulates in shellfish, sardines and anchovies. It is a biotoxin that affects the brain. Several people have died over the years and may others have become permanently disabled with brain damage after eating domoic acid contaminated seafood. The first reported outbreak of domoic acid poisoning was in 1987 at Prince Edward Island, Canada. Three people died and more than 100 were sickened in that outbreak after eating contaminated seafood.

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SFGate

State issues warning over toxic seafood

Posted on Friday, April 11 at 7:49am | By Kale Williams

Sardines are among the species of fish health officials are warning could be tainted with domoic acid. (Photo: San Francisco Chronicle)

State officials are advising consumers to stay away from certain types of seafood caught in the waters off Monterey and Santa Cruz counties after a toxic chemical was detected in some of the fish.
The California Department of Public Health issued the warning Thursday, telling the public to avoid sardines, anchovies and the internal organs of crabs because some samples from the region tested positive for domoic acid.
Domoic acid typically resides in the digestive tracts of the fish.
Symptoms of domoic acid poisoning usually set in between 30 minutes to 24 hours after eating tainted seafood and can include nausea, headaches, dizziness, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Severe cases can cause trouble breathing, loss of short-term memory, coma or death.

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Mysterious polio-like illness affects kids in California . Doctors investigate handful of cases of paralysis in one or more limbs

KING5

Mysterious polio-like illness affects kids in California

Credit: Jessica Tomei

Sofia Jarvis, 4, of Berkeley, Calif., was struck by a polio-like illness when she was 2. It left her with a paralyzed arm

by ELIZABETH WEISE / USA Today

Posted on February 23, 2014 at 5:29 PM

A mysterious polio-like syndrome has affected as many as 25 California children, leaving them with paralyzed limbs and little hope of recovery.
"What's we're seeing now is bad. The best-case scenario is complete loss of one limb, the worst is all four limbs, with respiratory insufficiency, as well. It's like the old polio," said Keith Van Haren, a pediatric neurologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif.
The first known case appeared in 2012. Sofia Jarvis in Berkeley began to experience wheezing and difficulty breathing. The 2-year-old spent days in the intensive care unit at Children's Hospital Oakland. Doctors thought she had asthma.
On a follow-up visit, her mother Jessica Tomei, 37, realized something else was wrong.
"As we were leaving the doctor's office, I noticed that she went to grab something with her left arm and she stopped, midway," Tomei said.
Eventually Sofia was brought to Van Haren's clinic with "a unique set of symptoms." She was treated with steroids and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, used to reduce the severity of infections by giving the body antibodies to protect against bacteria and viruses. "None of it helped," said Van Haren, a neurology professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
"He told us right away that the prognosis was really poor and that she's not going to get better," Tomei said.
The diagnosis proved correct. Today, at age 4, Sofia's left arm is paralyzed and she has some weakness in her left leg as well as slight breathing issues.
Still, parents shouldn't panic. "This is really very rare," Van Haren said. "But we are asking any families who notice a sudden onset of weakness to see their doctors immediately. Their doctors should contact the California Department of Public Health."
California is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to see if there are cases outside California. So far none have been reported.
Overall Sofia's family is grateful. "She's still with us, she's still running around, she's going to preschool," her mother said.
The case galvanized Van Haren and other neurologists, who worried a new disease had appeared. When they began to go through recent medical files, they found two more cases, both in the San Francisco Bay area.

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Polio-like disease seen in California children

Doctors investigate handful of cases of paralysis in one or more limbs

• Associated Press in Los Angeles
• 
  
• theguardian.com, Monday 24 February 2014 03.01 EST

A doctor gives an eight-week-old baby the polio vaccine. The children in California had been vaccinated against polio. Photograph: Alamy

A polio-like illness has afflicted a small number of children in California since 2012, causing severe weakness or rapid paralysis in one or more limbs.
The Los Angeles Times reported that state public health officials had been investigating the illness since a doctor requested polio testing for a child with severe paralysis in 2012. Since then, similar cases have sporadically been reported throughout the state.
Dr Carol Glaser, leader of a California department of public health team investigating the illnesses, said she was concerned about the request because polio had been eradicated in the US and the child had not travelled overseas.
The symptoms sometimes occur after a mild respiratory illness. Glaser said a virus that is usually associated with respiratory illness but which has also been linked to polio-like illnesses had been detected in two of the patients.

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