Risk of disease when eating raw seafood and how to prevent it

Risk of disease from eating raw seafood

Worm infection

The disease occurs in most places where people have the habit of eating grilled, undercooked crabs and shrimps. When eating freshwater shrimp and crabs carrying lung fluke larvae (Paragonimus westermani), patients have persistent coughs and rusty-colored phlegm similar to tuberculosis. Eating snails can easily cause schistosomiasis and the flukes can also enter the body through the skin when people are active in water. In the body, schistosomiasis and parasitic fluke eggs cause damage to the intestines, liver, lungs, heart, brain, kidneys, bladder... and sometimes cause death.

Raw crab meat contains Lungfluke cysts (a type of blood-sucking lungworm, also known as lung leech). If not cooked at high temperatures and eaten raw like crab salad, it is very easy to get lung leech disease. Lungfluke parasites in the lungs not only stimulate or destroy lung tissue, leading to coughing and spitting up blood, but can also invade the brain, leading to convulsions and even paralysis.

Eating sea fish has a very high risk of roundworm infection. Anisakia roundworms live as parasites in sea fish such as whales, seals, and dolphins. Following the "fish eat fish" chain, the disease spreads to many fish species that humans often eat such as: squid, mackerel, sardines, cod, flounder, rockfish, salmon, tuna, etc. Within a few hours of swallowing the worm larvae, the patient feels nausea, vomiting, and increasingly severe epigastric pain, sometimes severe abdominal pain, allergic reactions, and anaphylactic shock may occur.

Oysters are a type of seafood that is eaten raw with lemon or mustard. Although raw oysters provide a lot of protein, vitamins, zinc, etc. for the body, they also carry the Vibrio bacteria that cause cholera.

Poisoning

Some types of seafood always contain toxins such as: puffer fish, blue-ringed octopus, sea horseshoe crab, starfish, some types of sea snails... with the naked eye, it is impossible to detect whether there are toxins or not, the toxins are usually not destroyed by heat when cooking and normal processing methods, so it is best to avoid eating these types of seafood.

When suffering from seafood poisoning, the patient experiences numbness of the tongue, numbness of the lips, dizziness, headache, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, difficulty speaking, difficulty swallowing, loss of balance (staggering, staggering)...

When eating tuna with a histamine concentration that is too high, the eater will be poisoned after about 1-2 hours. If histamine affects the skin system, the patient will have common symptoms such as red rash on the skin, itchy skin; if histamine affects the respiratory system, it will cause the patient to have laryngeal edema, leading to difficulty breathing; if histamine affects the digestive system, the patient will have nausea and diarrhea.

Allergy

Many types of seafood can cause allergies to people whose bodies are not compatible with them, from shrimp, crab, and lobster... to ocean fish such as shark, salmon, tuna...

Seafood allergies are caused by an overreaction of the immune system. The immune system views seafood proteins as harmful, leading to the production of antibodies to that protein - the allergen.

When people with seafood allergies come into contact with allergens, the immune system releases histamine and other chemicals that cause allergic symptoms such as: Rash, itching or eczema; tingling in the mouth; Swelling of the lips, face, tongue and throat; Wheezing, stuffy nose or difficulty breathing; Abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting; In rare cases, the patient has an anaphylactic reaction...

How to eat seafood safely

Most worms or their eggs or larvae are destroyed by the boiling water temperature during the cooking of seafood. Therefore, disease prevention is still the best. Do the following: Absolutely eat cooked food and drink boiled water. Avoid eating squid or other raw, undercooked or undercooked sea fish. Do not eat dead shrimp, crabs, clams, mussels. Do not eat seafood with foods rich in vitamin C because seafood contains a large amount of pentavenlent arsenic. When preparing sea fish, the fish's organs should be removed because the worm larvae in fish often exist in the form of spiral worms or tightly coiled, colorless, round nests inside the organs. Seafood such as clams, mussels, snails, etc. should be washed and soaked in water for about 3-5 hours to release all the sand and dirt inside before processing. When eating strange seafood dishes, try a little at a time. For children, be careful when introducing new foods to them, start with a small amount, then gradually increase the amount.

After showing signs of an allergic reaction, the best way is to eliminate the allergenic food from the body as soon as possible by inducing vomiting. In severe cases, the patient must be taken to the hospital immediately for appropriate allergy medications and treatment. In particular, anti-allergy medications should not be used indiscriminately without a doctor's prescription.