(CN) 70 diners sick after eating raw snails

[Guest guest]

70 diners sick after eating raw snails

By Guan Xiaofeng in Beijing and Qiu Quanlin in Guangzhou

(China Daily)

2006-08-22 06:16

 

Seventy people in Beijing have been diagnosed as suffering from Guangzhou

Angiostrongylus meningitis, the Beijing Bureau of Health said at a press

conference yesterday.

 

The bureau said the meningitis outbreak had caused no deaths so far and

three patients had left hospital after treatment.

 

But the bureau warned people not to eat raw or half-cooked snails and gave a

phone number for the public to report anyone improperly cooked snails.

 

Guo Zixia, an official with the Beijing municipal office of health

inspection, said it would impose administrative punishment on Shuguo Yanyi

Restaurant for improperly cooking the Amazonian snails, which caused the

outbreak.

 

The office on Sunday issued an urgent notice prohibiting the sale of raw or

half-cooked freshwater snails in the city's restaurants.

 

The office also required restaurants to boil snails thoroughly before

serving them to customers.

 

It then inspected about 2,000 restaurants, although it did not find any

selling raw or half-cooked snails.

 

Yin Quanxi, an official with the office, was quoted by the Beijing Daily

Messenger as saying thoroughly boiled snails were safe to eat.

 

Yin said the office would improve the inspection of aquatic products, such

as snails, fish, shrimps and crabs, by establishing a system of traceable

purchases and sales so that food sources could be quickly identified.

 

The Beijing Friendship Hospital, specializing in treating the disease,

yesterday launched a training course on the treatment of Guangzhou

angiostrongylus meningitis.

 

The course will train about 200 doctors working in the city's third-class

and second-class hospitals.

 

The friendship hospital found the first case of meningitis on June 24 when a

34-year-old man suffered from violent headache and nausea after eating a

dish of cold snail meat at the Shuguo Yanyi Restaurant.

 

The snail meat was from the Amazonian snail fushouluo in Chinese which hosts

the Angiostrongylus cantonesis, a parasite that harms people's nervous

system.

 

Yin Chenghong, an expert from the hospital, said people do not have to panic

as the disease is curable and will not result in major problems if treated

timely and properly.

 

Yin said the disease has an average latency period of 10 days, during which

time people can suffer from headache, fever, vomiting and a stiff neck.

 

Meanwhile, there have been no reports of illness related to Amazonian snails

so far in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, the local

disease control and prevention office said yesterday.

 

" The city saw disease cases related to the snail in the 1980s, but has not

heard of any cases for more than a decade, " said Mao Xinwu, director of the

food and health department of Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and

Prevention.

 

However, the city's health authorities have decided to launch a one-week

inspection campaign of freshwater seafood to raise awareness about snail

diseases.

 

Guangzhou was one of the first Chinese cities to introduce Amazonian snails

in the 1980s, as a delicacy.

 

" Sales of Amazonian snails have been affected in recent days, " said Guo

Qinghong, a vendor at the Guangzhou Huangsha Seafood Market. " It is because

people are now afraid of diseases. "

 

" Once we prove eating salad snails could harm health, we will issue an

emergency notice to the public not to eat them, " said Huang Hui, an official

with the Guangzhou Health Bureau.

 

According to Huang, trade of Amazonian snails has not been suspended in the

city.

 

(China Daily 08/22/2006 page3)

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/22/content_670398.htm

......................................

Seafood markets stop snail sales

Shanghai Daily

Yan Zhen

2006-08-21

 

THE city's two major aquatic products wholesale markets halted sales of

apple snail, a large freshwater snail, on the weekend after food poisoning

cases were reported in Beijing.

 

In the Beijing cases, people ate raw apple snails.

 

Meanwhile, fisheries experts reminded the public yesterday not to buy

shellfish from unlicensed vendors and never eat raw snails.

 

Starting from 9pm on Saturday, the city's largest aquatic product wholesale

market on Tongchuan Road put up notices inside the bazaar telling vendors to

stop selling apple snails.

 

Huxi Aquatic Product Wholesale Market, another major seafood supplier, also

said it stopped vendors from purchasing apple snails before Saturday.

 

" We took the initiative to check and stop the sales after food poisoning

cases were reported in Beijing, " said Dai Honggen, director of Tongchuan

market's information office.

 

Considered a protein-rich delicacy, apple snails originated in the Amazon

River. It is a popular dish in both northern and western China.

 

On Thursday, 23 people in Beijing got sick after they ate uncooked apple

snail salad in a restaurant. Some victims reportedly developed meningitis

and five were still in critical condition, according to the Beijing Health

Bureau.

 

Compared with tens of thousands of kilograms consumed daily in Beijing,

apple snail sales in Shanghai total about 500 kilograms per day.

 

Hu Wende, general manager of the Huxi market, also said the suspension had

almost no impact on business as apple snail comprised only a tiny percentage

of total sales.

 

Market officials said they did not know when apple snail sales will resume.

To date, no immediate action was taken by the government market watchdog or

food administrators.

 

Pan Yingjie, president of the Shanghai Fisheries University, said that

shellfish can be unsafe due to several factors.

 

This includes pollution from the water, storage temperature during transport

and the cooking process.

 

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/08/20/289604/Seafood_markets_stop_snail_sa\

les.htm

......................................

Amazonian snails invade paddy fields in SW China

(Xinhua)

2006-08-21 16:55

 

NANNING -- Amazonian snails, a restaurant delicacy that has made many people

ill, are now being blamed for killing crops on more than 160,000 hectares in

southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

 

Farmers near seven cities in Guangxi have reported an invasion of Amazonian

snails in their paddy fields. Agricultural experts here said rainy weather,

brought by this summer's typhoons, created ideal conditions for the snails.

Annoyed by their quick proliferation farmers are using pesticide to kill the

snails.

 

Meanwhile, the Beijing Office of Food Safety issued an urgent notice over

the weekend, calling for tighter supervision over aquatic products and

safety inspection in supermarkets, shopping malls and restaurants. The

office also warned people against eating raw fish, shrimp, snail, crab,

frogs and snakes.

 

The large, black snails were a hot-selling aquatic product in big Chinese

cities like Beijing. However, 23 people in Beijing alone have fallen ill

after being infected by eel worms found in Amazonian snails, according to

the Beijing Health Bureau. The patients suffered from fevers and stiff neck

after eating Amazonian snail salad and a spicy snail dish in restaurants.

 

According to Xu Rongman, researcher with the Institute of Microbiology and

Epidemiology under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, each Amazonian

snail is host to 3,000 to 6,000 parasites, which can harm the human nervous

system, leading to headaches, facial paralysis, meningitis and fever.

 

Amazonian snails originated in South America and first came to China in the

1980s. The first patient to fall ill after eating the snails was reported in

Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province.

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/21/content_670074.htm

......................................

Answers.com

 

Ampullariidae

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/ampullariidae