Dispatches Haff Disease: From the Baltic Sea to
who ate fish in the 24 hours before onset of illness. We describe a series of six U.S. patients from 1997 and report new epidemiologic and etiologic aspects. Although Haff disease is traditionally an epidemic foodborne illness, these six cases occurred in two clusters and as one sporadic case. In th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.392.1892 http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/2/pdfs/00-0215.pdf |
| Summary: | who ate fish in the 24 hours before onset of illness. We describe a series of six U.S. patients from 1997 and report new epidemiologic and etiologic aspects. Although Haff disease is traditionally an epidemic foodborne illness, these six cases occurred in two clusters and as one sporadic case. In the summer and fall of 1924, physicians near the Königsberger Haff shores along the Baltic coast recognized an outbreak of an illness characterized by sudden, severe muscular rigidity (1-3). No neurologic abnormalities, fever, splenomegaly, or hepatomegaly were observed (1). Patients often had coffee-colored urine. The clinical spectrum of disease varied, few patients died, and most survivors recovered quickly. In the following 9 years, similar outbreaks, affecting an estimated 1,000 persons, occurred seasonally in the summer and fall along the coast of the “haff ” (a shallow lagoon). Recent ingestion of fish, usually cooked, was common among those who became ill; species of fish included burbot, eel, and pike. Seabirds and cats reportedly died after eating fish in the wild. Because of the absence of fever and the fact that fish had been cooked, known infectious causes were eliminated. Several toxic etiologies were proposed but could not be confirmed. Among these was arsenic poisoning (4), which is still cited in modern medical dictionaries as the cause of Haff disease (5). From 1934 until 1984, other outbreaks resembling Haff disease were described |
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