SGGPO 08/21/2023 15:14

While anchoring their fishing boat at Nam Du port, Kien Hai district (Kien Giang province), three fishermen decided to fish for puffer fish as a snack. As a result, one person died from food poisoning and two others were hospitalized.

Two patients poisoned by puffer fish were rescued in time and are now out of danger, their health is gradually recovering. Photo: Contributor

On the afternoon of August 21, Doctor Huynh Trong Tam, Head of the General Planning Department of Kien Giang General Hospital, said that two people hospitalized for emergency treatment due to puffer fish poisoning have recovered.

Previously, at noon on July 20, the Department of Resuscitation and Anti-Poisoning of Kien Giang General Hospital admitted 2 fishermen in a state of convulsions, numbness in the tongue, numbness in the legs, headache, and fatigue. Through examining the medical history, it was learned that these 2 patients and another person had drunk puffer fish. After eating puffer fish, 1 person died.

Doctor Tam added that to rule out ethanol poisoning (alcohol in wine), the hospital consulted carefully and determined that the two patients had typical signs of puffer fish poisoning.

Health experts recommend that it is best not to eat foods of unknown origin or that are toxic. In fact, many fishermen still regularly use puffer fish as food and as a snack. However, this is a fish whose toxicity changes constantly with the seasons and reproductive cycles, so it is difficult to know when puffer fish are poisonous or not.