What’s your rarest diagnosis? This GP found ciguatera poisoning in a rough and ready fisherman
Dr David Miller says one 'curious' symptom clued him into the diagnosis.
Dr David Miller used to live on a yacht in the tropics and talk with other fishermen about “things in the sea that sting and poison”.
These conversations flooded back to him when he encountered a rare case of ciguatera poisoning in NSW.
There are about 150 cases of ciguatera poisoning each year in Australia, according to NT Health, but it is most common in the topical and subtropical waters of the NT and northern Queensland.
But Dr Miller only saw it while working in the Northern Rivers region around 35 years ago.
