Rajkot: Scientists have confirmed the first poisoning case in humans because of the consumption of puffers in India, the victim became a 23-year-old man from Veraval who accidentally ate this toxic species last year.
A paper recently published by scientists from the Central Fisheries Technology Institute (CIFT), Cochin, the man developed a 15-minute symptom of eating pufferfish on May 2020.
He rushed to the ICU from a private hospital after he complained of dizziness, vertigo, aphasia and others.
He was fortunate to be saved.
A paper published in an international journal states: “This is the first confirmed pufferfish poisoning case in India with the right species identified.” The man has consumed the Stellate Puffer, also known as Arothron Stellatus, which contains Tetrodotoxin (TTX), which is said about 1,500 times more deadly than cyanide.
Cift Scientist Tom C Joseph, Ma Pradeep, TK Anupama, Parmar Ejaz, V Renya, S Remya and C N Ravishankar, DB Goswami from Veraval Hospital studied all the man’s clinical reports.
DNA cooked fish was also taken to prove how to poison her body.
Scientists say there are some suspicious cases of hospitalization and death due to consumption of these fish, but there are no scientific studies to prove this.
As a result, there is no death data by consuming these fish unlike many foreign countries such as Japan (1980), Australia (2002), Singapore (2004) and the US (2019).
According to research, fishermen, fish vendors and fish eaters in India do not recognize the potential of pufferfish poisons available very cheap on the market.
A total of 11 species of pufferfish were found along the vast coastline of India, but their toxigenic potential was still unknown to the large population.
Their consumption can cause death in a few minutes.
TTX is largely concentrated on the liver and ovarian puffers.
A bioassay mouse study proves that these four pufferfish species are found during the rainy season and the rainy season from India turns off.
Puffer and Chelenodon Speckled Patoca are identified as the most toxic of 11 species.
Because of its heat stability, this toxin is not destroyed by the cooking process.
“The lack of knowledge together with reporting below might be the reason for the official scarcity of data on pofferfish poisoning in India.
Lighter cases go not diagnosed or not reported because of lack of recognition.
Educating the Fisherfolk throughout the coast in India is a must to avoid The occurrence of puffer fish poisoning in the future, “the paper suggested.