Ciguatera poisoning

Fact sheet - Food safety, Queensland Government.

Ciguatera poisoning is a form of food poisoning. It is caused by eating warm water ocean finfish that carry ciguatera poison (a toxin). This poison is produced by a very tiny organism called a dinoflagellate, which attaches itself to algae growing in warm ocean water reef areas. Small plant-eating fish eat this toxic algae and in turn are eaten by larger predatory fish which are eaten by humans.

The Queensland Health guidelines for this condition are currently under review. Clinicians should contact their local public health unit for public health advice if they require it.

Notification

Notification resources

• List of all Pathological, clinical and provisional diagnosis notifiable conditions
• List of Public Health Unit contacts
• Notifiable conditions report form for Queensland doctors/clinicians (PHA S70) or person in charge of a Hospital (PHA S71) (PDF, 77kB) - if faxing notification, follow up by phone.
• Notification criteria for pathology laboratories (PDF, 55kB)

Enhanced surveillance for public health units

• Suspected ciguatera fish poisoning questionnaire (PDF, 143kB) - used by public health units to collect and manage more detailed information for enhanced case surveillance.

• View communicable diseases data for notifiable conditions in Queensland.
• Find OzFoodNet annual and quarterly reports.