freshwater puffer fish
Puffer poisoning usually results from consumption of incorrectly prepared puffers soup, “chiri” or occasionally from raw puffers meat, “sashimi fugu.” While chiri is much more likely to cause death, sashimi fugu often causes intoxication, light-headedness, and numbness of the lips, and is often eaten for this reason. Puffers (tetrodotoxin) poisoning will cause deadening of the tongue and lips, dizziness, and vomiting. These are followed by numbness and prickling over the body, rapid heart rate, decreased blood pressure, and muscle paralysis. Death results from suffocation as diaphragm muscles are paralyzed. Patients who live longer than 24 hours are expected to survive, although the poison can cause comas lasting several days. Many people report being fully conscious during the entirety of the coma, and can often remember everything that was said while they were supposedly unconscious. In Voodoo, puffers poison must be ingested by the victim for the black magic of creating “zombies,” most likely because of the pseudocomatose effect.[6]
Treatment consists of supportive care and intestinal decontamination with gastric lavage and activated charcoal. Case reports suggest that anticholinesterases such as edrophonium may be effective.
Saxitoxin, the cause of PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning, red tide), can also be found in puffers. Cases of neurologic symptoms, including numbness and tingling of the lips and mouth, have been reported to arise rapidly after the consumption of puffers caught in the area of Titusville, Florida. These symptoms are generally resolved within hours to days, although one affected individual required intubation for 72 hours. As a result of such cases, Florida banned the harvesting of puffers from certain bodies of water.
A drug called Tectin that is derived from tetrodotoxin is being developed as a potent pain reliever. Administered in very small quantities it can bring relief to those suffering from intense chronic pain, such as that experienced by some cancer patients. Other uses, such as helping opiate addicts through withdrawal, are also being studied.