23 fall ill after eating snails
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-08-20 20:22
Beijing - Twenty-three people in Beijing have fallen ill since May after
eating snails, according to the Beijing Health Bureau.
Eighteen are still in hospital - five of them are seriously ill. The other
five have made a complete recovery.
The youngest patient is a 13-year-old, who had a fever and a stiff neck a day
after he had eaten an Amazonian snail salad and a spicy snail dish in a branch
of the restaurant chain called Sichuan Legend.
All the patients had eaten the snails in two restaurants, both branches of
Sichuan Legend. Doctors suspect that a batch of the Amazonian snails was
contaminated.
According to Xu Rongman, researcher with the Institute of Microbiology and
Epidemiology under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, each Amazonian
snail is an intermediate host of 3,000 to 6,000 parasites, which can harm the
human nervous system, leading to headaches, facial paralysis, meningitis and
fever.
The Beijing Office of Food Safety issued an urgent notice on Saturday,
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, frog and snake.
Amazonian snails originate from South America and first came to China in the
1980s. The first patient of Angiostrongylus Cantonensis, the disease caused by
the snails, was reported in Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong
Province.
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