Three fishermen in Kien Giang Province, southern Vietnam were poisoned after eating canh chua (Vietnamese sweet and sour soup) with puffer fish roe, with one of them dead before being hospitalized, a local hospital representative confirmed on Monday morning.

The deceased, named N.X.H., a native of north-central Ha Tinh Province, was found dead on Saturday night.

Two others, Tran Phuong Binh and Bui Dinh Linh, were rushed to the Kien Giang General Hospital at around 0:12 on Sunday.

Binh, a 46-year-old native of neighboring An Giang Province, and Linh, a 41-year-old resident of Kien Giang’s Ha Tien City, were admitted to the hospital where they were diagnosed with puffer fish poisoning.

Both of them developed symptoms such as lip and tongue numbness, headache, and fatigue.

Their health conditions became stable after one day of intensive care and they are being monitored at the hospital, said Huynh Trong Tam, head of the hospital’s general planning department.

They are expected to be discharged in the next few days, the doctor said.

Bui Dinh Linh told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that he, Binh, and H. caught a big puffer fish when they were fishing some 50 kilometers away from Nam Du Island, which is off the coast of Kien Giang, at around 5:00 pm last Saturday.

“We often eat puffer fish and remain fine," Linh said.

“We cooked canh chua with the puffer fish caught last Saturday, which had roe, and drank a little wine.

“H. died four hours later, while Binh and I felt numb and shortness of breath and were hospitalized."

Those who want to consume puffer fish need to process them carefully and remove parts such as the liver, bile, and roe that contain many toxins to avoid being poisoned, according to doctors at the Kien Giang General Hospital.

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