23 November 2006

Public Health Advice: Eating Raw Whitebait

NSW Health is alerting people not to eat raw whitebait. This follows the reports of three women, treated at two Sydney hospitals with severe gastroenteritis due to a 'cholera like' germ. Further specialised tests are being carried out to confirm whether or not the women have cholera.

All three women were suffering severe diarrhoea. The women are being treated at Royal Prince Alfred and Concord Hospitals.

The common factor in each of the cases is that all three women had recently eaten raw whitebait, which was bought from local fish shops and is understood to have come from China.

NSW Health is working with the NSW Food Authority to determine the exact source of the whitebait, and to withhold the whitebait from sale. NSW Health says it is a timely reminder to the public not to eat raw whitebait.

Symptoms of cholera include severe diarrhoea and dehydration. Cholera is contracted from eating contaminated food or water. There is little risk of person-to-person infection.

NSW Health has asked public health units to ask emergency departments, infectious disease doctors and laboratories to be alert for other cases. So far no other cases have been identified, although an elderly man from Sydney's inner west with a similar illness is under investigation.

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au