Four persons in Ghana have been confirmed dead after consuming a particular kind of fish, called puffer which officials said were poisonous.
A health official in the Volta region of Ghana told Starr FM that the four person who died from consuming the fish came from two separate communities.
Several other people in the affected communities are undergoing treatment at health facilities while other residents are reportedly living in fear.
Ghana’s Food and Drug Authority (FDA) is investigating the poisonous fish incident while the country’s Ministry of Fisheries and other agencies have begun intensifying education on the dangers of consuming the said fish.
A spokesperson for the FDA, James Lartey told Citi FM that, “together with the fisheries department in the Volta Region and then the Municipal Assembly embarked on an exercise where the visited a number of markets and all the markets they went to did not have any sample of that fish.”
“According to our officer, the women at the market were saying they know it to be it’s a poisonous fish so it is not a fish that is sold there,” Lartey added.
The FDA official said the residents “were already aware of that particular fish but there is the need for further education.”
Residents told local media in Ghana that the ill-preparation of the fish before consumption caused the deaths.
Puffer fish are thought to be the world’s second deadliest vertebrate, after the golden poison frog- Puffer fish are toxic to predators – and even humans.
Source: Africafeeds.com
