Dozens ill after eating crayfish
By Wang Xiang |
August 24, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Dozens of people in Nanjing City are suffering from a rapid breakdown of muscles and acute kidney failure after eating crayfish.
Doctors believe some restaurants used a detergent mainly made of oxalic acid to wash crayfish, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The doctors said excessive detergent-residue levels caused rhabdomyolysis, the breakdown of muscle fibers and subsequent release of muscle fiber contents into the blood, which can cause kidney failure or death.
Hospitals in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, have registered at least 20 patients suffering from rhabdomyolysis since July, the peak crayfish season. They all showed muscle pains and tests found elevated damaged muscle cells in their bloodstream after eating crayfish.
Liu Jia, a doctor with Jiangsu People's Hospital, said their similar symptoms were unquestionably related to the crayfish they had eaten several hours before beginning to show symptoms, the Yangtze Evening Newspaper reported yesterday.
The patients all felt unbearable soreness in their muscles and could not move because of the pain. Most patients have been cured, though they were wheeled into hospital, unable to move.
Although doctors blamed the illness on the detergent, the food safety authority in Nanjing's Baixia District said yesterday that the washing powder can not cause rhabdomyolysis. Besides, at least three patients cooked the crayfish at home, the newspaper report said.
No similar cases were reported in Shanghai, said Gu Zhenhua, an official with the city's Food and Drugs Administration. The substance in the detergent, oxalic acid, sparked an uproar and was banned in Shanghai in May.
Doctors discovered in 2000 that eating crayfish can lead to acute rhabdomyolysis, according to People's Daily online. But the disease has remained rare. And according to Han Ting, a doctor in Shanghai No.10 People's Hospital, experts still have no idea what factors, other than physical injury, cause the disease.
The latest victims of the crayfish in Nanjing were a family of three. The father had crayfish in a restaurant and brought the leftovers home. The mother and the son all fell ill after eating but the father showed no symptoms at all, the report said.
Nanjing authority raided the restaurants suspected responsible for spreading the disease but only found minor faults such as keeping the raw and cooked material in the same fridge. Officials took samples of the crayfish sold in the restaurants for tests. But no results were yet released.
Doctors believe some restaurants used a detergent mainly made of oxalic acid to wash crayfish, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The doctors said excessive detergent-residue levels caused rhabdomyolysis, the breakdown of muscle fibers and subsequent release of muscle fiber contents into the blood, which can cause kidney failure or death.
Hospitals in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, have registered at least 20 patients suffering from rhabdomyolysis since July, the peak crayfish season. They all showed muscle pains and tests found elevated damaged muscle cells in their bloodstream after eating crayfish.
Liu Jia, a doctor with Jiangsu People's Hospital, said their similar symptoms were unquestionably related to the crayfish they had eaten several hours before beginning to show symptoms, the Yangtze Evening Newspaper reported yesterday.
The patients all felt unbearable soreness in their muscles and could not move because of the pain. Most patients have been cured, though they were wheeled into hospital, unable to move.
Although doctors blamed the illness on the detergent, the food safety authority in Nanjing's Baixia District said yesterday that the washing powder can not cause rhabdomyolysis. Besides, at least three patients cooked the crayfish at home, the newspaper report said.
No similar cases were reported in Shanghai, said Gu Zhenhua, an official with the city's Food and Drugs Administration. The substance in the detergent, oxalic acid, sparked an uproar and was banned in Shanghai in May.
Doctors discovered in 2000 that eating crayfish can lead to acute rhabdomyolysis, according to People's Daily online. But the disease has remained rare. And according to Han Ting, a doctor in Shanghai No.10 People's Hospital, experts still have no idea what factors, other than physical injury, cause the disease.
The latest victims of the crayfish in Nanjing were a family of three. The father had crayfish in a restaurant and brought the leftovers home. The mother and the son all fell ill after eating but the father showed no symptoms at all, the report said.
Nanjing authority raided the restaurants suspected responsible for spreading the disease but only found minor faults such as keeping the raw and cooked material in the same fridge. Officials took samples of the crayfish sold in the restaurants for tests. But no results were yet released.
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