Haff Disease Toxin Mystery

Haff disease is a rare condition where people develop severe rhabdomyolysis, a dangerous breakdown of muscle tissue, within 24 hours of eating fish or seafood. The illness was first described in 1924 near the Baltic Sea and has since appeared in outbreaks across the United States, China, and Brazil, often linked to cooked fish that seemed completely normal. Scientists strongly suspect a heat-stable toxin that survives cooking and enters the body through contaminated seafood. However, despite nearly a century of cases and investigation, the exact toxin has still never been identified.

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