SAMAL, Bataan- Seven persons, including a child and two women, were downed by paralytic shellfish poisoning after eating sunset shell or “sulib” contaminated of the red tide toxin gathered at the area of Manila Bay here Monday afternoon.
Danilo Abrera, fisheries division chief of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, was dismayed of what happened. He said they spread the information on the ban last November 4 yet to all mayors, municipal and city fisheries councils and other agencies of government.
“Ginawa na namin ang lahat, hindi kami nagkulang. Nagulat kami na meron pang ganitong insidente. Maging lesson na sana ito sa lahat at wala nang sumunod pa,” Arnold Bucad, 46 and Jon- Jon Rodriguez, 18, said they gathered the sulib and prepared it as pulutan in a drinking session with Michael Sanchez, 30 and Roberto Mena, 49, all from Barangay Sapa in Samal.
All four complained of numbness of body and lips and were rushed to the district hospital in Orani, Bataan.
Ranold Rodriguez, 11, Dina Reyes, 28, and Mara Torres, 20, also ate adobong sulib bought from Bucad and were also confined at the Orani hospital. “Kumain ako ng adobong sulib alas-7:30 ng gabi ng Lunes.
Pagdating ng alas-2 ng madaling araw ng Martes, namanhid mga paa at braso ko,” Sanchez said. “Nahilo ako parang lumilindol,” said Mena who ate adobong sulib. “Para akong inaangat, lumulutang,” Rodriguez said.
All seven victims claimed they ate from two to six spoonfuls of sulib in the afternoon and felt the pain in the morning of the next day. “Hindi na ako kakain ng sulib…Huwag munang kumain ng shellfish, may red tide,” they advised.
Dr. Rosalie Manubay, assistant chief of the Orani District Hospital, said per their fi ndings, the victims ate only sulib and the symptoms registered were that of shellfish poisoning. She said that they were all given medication and placed under observation.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources issued an advisory Tuesday last week banning the gathering, selling, transporting and eating of shellfi sh in the whole of Bataan after samples of shellfish gathered showed high red tide toxin level beyond the tolerable limit.
Covered in the ban are the towns of Orani, Samal, Abucay, Pilar, Orion, Limay and Mariveles and the City of Balanga; all coastal areas facing Manila Bay in Bataan
