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MyspaceWhat started as an innocent sushi meal for one Santa Barbara resident turned into something far worse: a bout with anisakiasis, a parasitic infection that nearly killed her and made her unique as the first person in the country to ever contract this disease.
The infection nearly killed Alana Tillim, owner of Santa Barbara Dance Arts, and required the removal of her colon and part of her intestines for treatment in 2002.
After spending two weeks in the hospital and dropping to 85 pounds, Tillim survived, and will be dramatically reenacting her ordeal Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Animal Planet for the show Monsters Inside Me.
“As the very first person in the U.S. to get this, I was sort of a case study,” said Tillim, who is now completely healthy after fighting complications from the parasite in 2004.
The infection was caused by anisakis simplex, a parasite that usually resides in the stomachs of marine animals but can be transmitted to humans who eat undercooked seafood, according to information from the Center For Disease Control and Prevention.
In Tillim’s case, the mass that was removed from her digestive system was a combination of the parasite, which was about a centimeter long, and the cells used by her body to fight the infection.
“The real message is that this can happen to anyone, anywhere,” Tillim said.
Related Links
- Complete TV listings for Santa Barbara [ June 12, 2010 ]
- Animal Planet "Monsters Inside Me" tips and parasites [ June 12, 2010 ]
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Comments
Okay, so where did she eat the sushi? Here in the U.S.? Here in Santa Barbara.... come on... you can't leave us hanging on that! What are the precautions a good sushi chef could have taken, etc.????
maximum (anonymous profile)
June 9, 2010 at 11:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm under the impression that she ate sushi at a local restaurant and maybe the establishments name was purposley left out. Then again, I could be wrong.
I think that no matter where you eat sushi, you are taking a small risk of getting sick or getting some kind of parasite. I would think the fresher the fish and the colder temps are, the less likely you are of becoming ill.
TheosOnTheNose (anonymous profile)
June 9, 2010 at 11:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sushi is packed frozen throughout Japan and the US, and it is the exception (not necessarily a good thing) that a restaurant would be selling 'just caught' fish.
The delicious, rare, and costly stuff is almost without fail the result of an ice-packed shipping and hours and hours at below freezing temperatures.
So yeah, it's definitely cold.
But they are out there:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...
Chester_Arthur_Burnett (anonymous profile)
June 9, 2010 at 12:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm surprised nobody has blamed this on Flotopia.
Pinatubo (anonymous profile)
June 9, 2010 at 12:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The precautions a cook can take is to COOK the fish and kill the parasite.
RE: Freshness.
If the parasite is present and the fish is fresh you just have a healthier parasite.
taz (anonymous profile)
June 9, 2010 at 2:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Pinatubo is without equal when it comes to stupid postings. Absolute gibberish .
geeber (anonymous profile)
June 9, 2010 at 6:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Someone please explain the joke to geeber.
Pinatubo (anonymous profile)
June 9, 2010 at 10:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A marine biology class that I took, included fish dissection. As I recall, almost every fish used in the class was infected with nematodes of some type.
Personally, I cut up a Pacific Mackerel (chub mackerel / scomber japonicus), and I started removing the worms to count them. I think I was in the mid-30's when I stopped counting.
I doubt that there are many fish in the sea that do NOT have communicable parasites, but I still ingest sushi from time to time.
equus_posteriori (anonymous profile)
June 11, 2010 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
While I am glad she has recovered her nearly fatal bout with this parasite, the odds of contracting this little bugger is about the same as being killed on American soil by Al Qaeda----about 1 in 300,000,000.
Does it matter where she contracted it? No, not at all.
Sushi remains on the menu until alien Sasquatch say otherwise.
Draxor (anonymous profile)
June 11, 2010 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"I'm surprised nobody has blamed this on Flotopia."
Best comment I've ever read on the indy. Please though, it's FloAtopia and should be followed by RIP.
ucsbstudent (anonymous profile)
June 12, 2010 at midnight (Suggest removal)