Leslie Cheong, Singapore

Abatract

At the First International Conference on Harmful Algae Management and Mitigation (HAMM 1999), held in May 1999 in The Philippines, participants identified the need to gather more information on the medical and epidemiology aspects of human illnesses caused by ingestion of seafood contaminated by marine algal toxin. It was felt that information on this subject was lacking and medical doctors are unfamiliar with the symptoms and diagnosis of such cases. A survey was subsequently carried out amongst APEC economies and epidemiological investigation reports on toxin cases were received from Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and The Philippines. The information gathered and any others that are current could be collated and posted in a dedicated web site so as to facilitate medical doctors attending to toxin cases in the field. Besides containing a description of the clinical symptoms of toxin cases and photographs and description of the toxic algae and toxins involved, the site will have provision for the doctor to log in the case so that he can forward to experts for advice. It is estimated that it would cost an estimated USD5000 to establish such a site comprising 10 web pages. Yearly maintenance of the site would cost 20% of the cost, inclusive of hosting but exclusive of domain cost. A prototype web site will be shown at HAMM 2001.