LEGAZPI CITY -- Health authorities in Albay have raised an alarm and banned the gathering, marketing and consumption of dried Goby and Puffer fish following the death of a six-year old girl and the hospitalization of 15 others due to poisoning after eating them.

        Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda directed last Tuesday the Provincial Health Office (PHO) and 18 town and city mayors to enforce a provincial health advisory permanently banning the gathering, selling and eating of dried Goby and Puffer fish.

        The directive also include the confiscation of dried fishes of certain species of “Bunog” or “Parog”, “Tikong” local names of Goby fish, and “Butete” or Puffer fish being sold in public markets in the towns of Albay.

        Dr. Luis Mendoza, PHO chief, said his office received reports from four town health units of 16 cases of food poisoning for eating dried Goby and Puffer fish that cause the death of a 6 year old girl.

        Mendoza said the cases were noted in Tabaco City with 10 incidents with one death; Bacacay with 3 incidents; and one cases each in the towns of Daraga and Guinobatan.

        PHO records show that a rising number of food poisoning incidence (15 cases and one death) was noted compared to previous years: 2005 – 6 cases were reported in Bacacay with one death; 2006 no incidents; 2007- 9 cases were reported in Daraga with two deaths.

        Albay PHO said the Goby and Puffer fish are not edible and unfit for human consumption as it contains a toxin called “Tetrodotoxin” or pufferfish toxin.

        People who ate this kind of dried fish would suffer numbness, paralysis, respiratory distress, drop in blood pressure, and impairment of mental faculties.

        The symptoms may be felt within 5 to 30 minutes and there are no antidote for this kind of toxin, Mendoza said.