1 dead, 8 sickened after eating poisonous pufferfish in Nantou

Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) One person has died and another eight were sickened after consuming poisonous pufferfish, or fugu, in Nantou County on Saturday night, according to local authorities.

The poisoning occurred after a restaurant owner, surnamed Hung (洪), in the mountain town of Cinjing invited eight neighbors to a meal at his home that included fugu, Chen Chih-wen (陳志文), deputy head of the Nantou County Police Bureau's Renai Precinct, told CNA Sunday.

The following morning, one of the guests, surnamed Yang (楊), noticed a numbing sensation in his mouth, hands and feet, and decided to go to Hung's house to check on him, Chen said.

After Hung failed to answer the door, Yang entered the home to find him lying on the ground without vital signs and called for an ambulance.

Hung was later pronounced dead, while the eight other guests at the dinner were taken to the Puli branch of Taichung Veterans General Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening symptoms, Chen said.

Chen added that police had asked prosecutors to take samples of the fish for testing and to look into how Hung had procured it.

Fugu, or pufferfish, contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin, typically in its ovaries, liver, intestines and skin. When improperly prepared, fugu can cause numbness, dizziness and vomiting in mild cases, and in severe cases can lead to respiratory paralysis and death.

Update

Dec. 6: Pufferfish that killed 1, sickened 8 identified as inedible, says FDA