19 diners suffer ciguatera fish poisoning on Lamma Island
Six of the diners had sought medical help and at least one person was admitted to hospital for treatment. All are in now in stable condition, the Centre for Health Protection said.
Health authorities are launching an investigation into food poisoning case in which 19 people fell ill after eating coral reef fish at a Lamma Island eatery on Saturday.
Fourteen men and five women, aged 23 to 71, had eaten fish at the seafood restaurant, and had fallen ill with symptoms of the potentially lethal ciguatera poisoning three to 19 hours later, the Centre for Health Protection said.
The restaurant in question was the Wai Kee Sea Food Restaurant in Sok Kwu Wan.
Symptoms can include numbness of the mouth and limbs, heart palpitations fatigue, vomiting, diarrhoea and flushes. Excessive consumption can also affect the circulatory and nervous systems.
Six of the diners had sought medical help and at least one person was admitted to hospital. All are in now in stable condition, the CHP said.
Wai Kee restaurant keeper surnamed Wong told the Post that it was “pure bad luck” that the fish had carried ciguatoxin and there was no real way of tracing the roots of the toxin, nor was there any quick way to test for it.