Dozens of people in Nanjing City are suffering from a rapid breakdown of muscles and acute kidneyfailure after eating crayfish.

Doctors believe some restaurants used a detergent mainly made of oxalic acid to wash crayfish, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The doctors said excessive detergent-residue levels caused rhabdomyolysis, the breakdown of muscle fibers and subsequentrelease of muscle fiber contents into the blood, which can cause kidneyfailure or death.

Hospitals in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, have registered at least 20 patients suffering from rhabdomyolysis since July, the peak crayfish season. They all showed muscle pains and tests found elevated damaged muscle cells in their bloodstream after eating crayfish.

Liu Jia, a doctor with Jiangsu People's Hospital, said their similar symptoms were unquestionablyrelated to the crayfish they had eaten several hours before beginning to show symptoms, the Yangtze Evening Newspaper reported yesterday.

The patients all felt unbearable soreness in their muscles and could not move because of the pain. Most patients have been cured, though they were wheeled into hospital, unable to move.

Although doctors blamed the illness on the detergent, the food safety authority in Nanjing's Baixia District said yesterday that the washing powder can not cause rhabdomyolysis. Besides, at least three patients cooked the crayfish at home, the newspaper report said.

No similar cases were reported in Shanghai, said Gu Zhenhua, the head of the city's Food and Drugs Administration. The substance in the detergent, oxalic acid, sparked an uproar and was banned in Shanghai in May.

Doctors discovered in 2000 that eating crayfish can lead to acute rhabdomyolysis, according to People's Daily online. But the disease has remained rare. And according to Han Ting, a doctor in Shanghai No.10 People's Hospital, experts still have no idea what factors, other than physicalinjury, cause the disease.

The latest victims of the crayfish in Nanjing were a family of three. The father had crayfish in a restaurant and brought the leftovers home. The mother and the son all fell ill after eating but the father showed no symptoms at all, the report said.

Nanjing authority raided the restaurants suspected responsible for spreading the disease but only found minor faults such as keeping the raw and cooked material in the same fridge. Officials took samples of the crayfish sold in the restaurants for tests. But no results were yet released.

• suffering [´sʌfəriŋ] n.痛苦；灾害 (初中英语单词)
• failure [´feiljə] n.失败；衰竭；破产 (初中英语单词)
• mainly [´meinli] ad.主要地；大体上 (初中英语单词)
• agency [´eidʒənsi] n.代理商；机构；代理 (初中英语单词)
• muscle [´mʌsəl] n.肌肉；体力；力量 (初中英语单词)
• release [ri´li:s] vt&n.释放；放松；赦免 (初中英语单词)
• contents [´kɔ:ntents] n.容纳物；要旨 (初中英语单词)
• province [´prɔvins] n.省；领域；范围 (初中英语单词)
• beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• unable [ʌn´eibəl] a.不能的；无能为力的 (初中英语单词)
• illness [´ilnis] n.生病，不健康，疾病 (初中英语单词)
• administration [əd,minis´treiʃən] n.管理(事务等)；经营 (初中英语单词)
• physical [´fizikəl] a.物质的；有形的 (初中英语单词)
• injury [´indʒəri] n.伤害；毁坏；侮辱 (初中英语单词)
• restaurant [´restərɔnt] n.饭店，菜馆 (初中英语单词)
• responsible [ri´spɔnsəbəl] a.尽责的；责任重大的 (初中英语单词)
• excessive [ik´sesiv] a.过分的；极端的 (高中英语单词)
• subsequent [´sʌbsikwənt] a.其次的；其后的 (高中英语单词)
• related [ri´leitid] a.叙述的；有联系的 (高中英语单词)
• yangtze [´jæŋtsi:] n.长江 (英语四级单词)
• uproar [´ʌprɔ:] n.喧嚣；骚动；轰鸣，轰动 (英语四级单词)
• breakdown [´breikdaun] n.崩溃；倒塌；损耗 (英语六级单词)
• kidney [´kidni] n.肾；性格；脾气 (英语六级单词)
• unquestionably [ʌn´kwestʃənəbli] ad.当然地，无可非议地 (英语六级单词)
• unbearable [ʌn´beərəbəl] a.不堪忍受的 (英语六级单词)