At least three individuals have recently suffered severe allergic reactions after eating the same dish in a Hamilton restaurant.

And a local allergist said, even over a two month period, it is an unusually high incidence rate.

Two of the women affected spoke to the Royal Gazette about feeling unwell after eating a Thai Tuna Salad at the Lobster Pot restaurant and the frustration that accompanied trying to find out what had happened to them.

Bridgette Roche ate at the restaurant last Thursday, Mar 15. Within 30 to 40 minutes of leaving the restaurant, she said, she began to feel hot, suffered a headache and developed a red rash all over her body.

Ms Roche said she took an antihistamine, but had no reaction. When she felt her heart start to palpitate, she went directly to the emergency room of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where she found out she was having an allergic reaction -- although she had no known allergies.

Knowing that allergic reactions can repeat in more severe forms, Ms Roche contacted the restaurant to try and find out all the ingredients in the dish.

She said she spoke first to the chef and then to the manager. Both men tried to help her but she became alarmed when she could not find out any information about the tuna that she had eaten other than that it was frozen, vacuum packed and imported.

"All they could tell me was that it was in a brown box, imported and comes from Butterfield and Vallis -- there was no list of ingredients on the box or even a company name,'' Ms Roche said.

A second woman, Susan Richardson, told the Royal Gazette she suffered the same reaction after eating the same dish at the end of January.

"I was sitting in a meeting and felt myself go red,'' she said. "People in the meeting didn't tell me I'd changed colour but I was reddish-purple, like a third degree sunburn.'' Ms Richardson said she also started to experience heart palpitations and when she got back to her guest house, staff insisted she go directly to their doctor.

Ms Roche said that Lobster Pot manager Eddie Bardgett told her of a third woman who had been treated by a doctor after she suffered a reaction to the same dish.

"I want to know what it was so I can avoid it,'' said Ms Roche. "What if I'd been an older person or someone with a heart problem?'' She is especially concerned because she had a much weaker reaction on another occasion she ate the same salad at the same restaurant.

Both women are now very wary of eating fish. Ms Roche said she has always eaten sushi, but since last week won't touch fish, while Ms Richardson said she has since eaten tuna -- and felt fine -- but wouldn't be going back to the Lobster Pot. "It was a nice salad,'' she said. "But I wouldn't risk going back there again.'' Lobster Pot manager Eddie Bardgett said with an allergic reaction, it could have been from anything on the plate, or even something that might have been on the same grill.

Allergist Dr. Jonathan Murray backed up that point. "It would take a little more detective work at this point to say, `yes, it's definitely the tuna','' he said.

And while Dr. Murray said, given the women's reactions, it sounded like an allergic reaction, with three suspected incidents over two months, he would think the tuna shipment should be looked at.

"That's a high incidence rate,'' he said. "Sometimes its difficult to tell the difference between an allergic reaction and a food poisoning incident.'' Mr. Bardgett said he tried to help Ms Roche but could only tell her what he knew about the tuna -- that the box is simply marked "tasteless, smoked tuna''.

"I've served the Thai Tuna Salad to over 100 people in the last five months and they've had no problems,'' he said. And he pointed out the tuna is used in all the restaurant's tuna dishes and at scores of restaurants across the Island.

He said Ms Roche stressed that she was not allergic to tuna but it may have been something the tuna interacted with on the same grill. "It's cooked on a grill with scallops and shrimp,'' he said.

Dr. Murray said that spontaneous allergic reactions are more common to shellfish than tuna, so that it is possible the reaction came from something else on the grill. "It's really important that they find out exactly what it was because reactions can get increasingly severe,'' he said.

When Butterfield & Vallis, the wholesalers of the tuna, were contacted, general manager Alun Hughes, put The Royal Gazette in touch with the supplier's representative, who was on Island for two days to attend the B&V food show.

Darrell Glover, of Beaver Street Fisheries of Florida, said the tuna in question comes into the United States from Indonesia and is carefully scrutinised by the US Food and Drug Administration.

"Nothing comes in from Indonesia without being carefully checked,'' he said.

"And, if there was a problem with it, we would have seen hundreds of cases in the United States.'' HEALTH HTH