A group of people who ate fish contaminated with toxins suffered from an embarrassing sexual complaint, according to a new medical report.
The study, which has just been published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, claims that men and women who ate sea fish contaminated by ciguatoxins suffered pain associated with intercourse and ejaculation.
Out of seven patients affected who were sexually active, six of them complained of painful intercourse. Two men affected described painful ejaculation, while all four women said that they felt a burning sensation during intercourse which continued for one month.
All of the people affected had eaten Amberjack, carangid marine fishes from the genus Seriola, and were treated in hospital after suffering from Ciguatera poisoning.
Ciguatera is caused by ciguatoxin, a poison that accumulates in the tissues of predatory marine fishes that have consumed other fishes carrying the toxin which they in turn accumulated through ingesting a microalgae called Gambierdiscus toxicus.
For more information see: Cluster of Ciguatera fish poisoning - North Carolina, 2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. March 27, 2009 / 58(11);283-285. Via Reuters.