This piece of raw or undercooked fish looks great. Diners smack their lips a three-centimeter larva goes unnoticed on a plate and prepares to migrate to another very favorable environment: our stomach. Dr. Dashner and his patient to check anisakis left a memory before his death.
Three days. This is the time that passes from the moment Manuel begins to feel unwell until he decides to go to the doctor. Your symptoms demand it: swollen lips, itching, and skin rashes.. “At first I was told that it could be an allergy to iodinated contrast, but that possibility was soon ruled out,” he says.
Clinical history, sequence of events, test anisakis on the skin and… Positive. The doctor soon finds out the causal relationship. “Have you recently eaten anchovies in vinegar? Yes.” Being a big fan of fish, Manuel usually eats it once a week.
“If we take unfrozen raw or undercooked fish, can cause a live larva to cause an allergic reaction,” says Dr. Alvaro Dashner, an allergist at the Hospital de la Princesa. This larva is an anisakis parasite, a worm about three centimeters long and one millimeter thick that lodges in the muscles of the fish.
Contagion: Russian Roulette
Bring the fork to your mouth and… An unexpected guest colonizes our stomach Without our awareness. His fascinating journey begins with fishing gear. “If the boats go to the open sea, and the fish do not immediately become visceral, the larvae can migrate into the muscles. The way it is sold and prepared also plays a role,” Dashner says.
The probability that this little creature will be in our intestines they depend on several factors: Is it alive when it hits our plate? Does our body tolerate anisakis? It’s a matter of fine statistics. “If we take precautions when preparing fish, it will be very difficult to get it,” says the doctor.
The parasite dies before reaching the plate if we cook fish at a temperature of 60 degrees for ten minutes. Research points to this, although “it depends on the thickness of the fish; It can’t be hot outside and cold inside. Common sense works, ”the doctor emphasizes. Another guarantee of prevention is the freezing of products.
Early death of the worm
Anisakis parasite it keeps us company for a day or two, no more. “Then it gets thrown out and dies, it doesn’t stay in our body,” says Dr. Dashner. It is at this moment that patients notice the natural reaction of their body to a foreign body:
The reaction is usually acute and resolves with symptomatic treatment within a few hours. Them symptom it can be abdominal pain, vomiting, urticaria … “In some cases, it is not clearly expressed and lasts for weeks or months,” the allergist clarifies.
What have you eaten in the last 24 hours? When did you start noticing the reaction? Do you remember any problems with fish? These are rigorous questions to get to the root of the problem, which is more common among allergy sufferers. “We must insist and seek undercooked or raw fishDashner insists.
After taking a history and a skin test, two tests for immunoglobulin E (a type of antibody in the blood) in November and April confirmed that Manuel had a problem. “In the beginning, we had very high levels of immunoglobulins, and in the second analysis, we saw how they decrease,” says the doctor.
Anisakis, treatment and prevention
“The doctor prescribed some allergy medicines, but no specific medicines for anisaki”Manuel notes. Anisakis disappears from our lives as soon as a person expels him, so you usually don’t have to fight him. The priority is to alleviate the effects of the allergic reaction we are suffering from.
Regarding the parasite, “nothing needs to be done other than to insist on general recommendations that are the same for the entire population,” the allergist clarifies. Let’s remember:
- Freeze the fish.
- Make sure it’s well cooked.
- In some special cases, switch to a fish-free diet temporarily as directed by your doctor.
- Except for very severe stomach pains, gastroscopy is not necessary to extract the larvae; comes out alone
“I love tuna belly and usually eat it fresh or grilled…” Manuel makes no secret of his interest in learning about both unsafe cooking methods and fish that may contain anisakis. “A risk cannot be ruled out because iron is not very safe,” the doctor warns.
With information from Eph.