Eating the foods we love, or enjoy shouldn't kill us. And I'm not talking about the slow death from that extra pat of butter, but something a little more direct. A little.
Jayko died a little more than a week ago, and was buried yesterday. This past weekend when I called home I received some news of what caused his death. As I understand it his death was from trichinosis, from eating Walrus.
Up here, most Walrus that is consumed is consumed as Igunaq, or aged Walrus. Igunaq is essentially made by wrapping raw walrus meat and blubber in Walrus hide and burying it until it ages. Now before you pass too much judgment on eating meat that is "bad", think about that slice of cheese that you had today. In essence it is the same process.
The problem that arises however is that occassionaly Walrus carry the round worm Trichinella spiralis, the larva of which, causes the disease know as trichinosis. Most often it is encountered in pork and certain wild meats. You probably recall being admonished to always cook your pork well, trichinosis is the reason. Fortunately it rare, unfortunately not rare enough.
Cooking meats infected with Trichinella spiralis kills them, so does freezing pork. And while igunaq is not cooked it is often frozen, but there is another twist. The species of Trichinella that infects wild meats, such as Walrus is far more resistant to freezing. Freezing igunaq apparently doesn't always kill the parasite.
I'm told that the disease can essentially lay dormant for many many years. Once meat infected with larval cysts is eaten the stomach acids release the larvae. Although they can penetrate any cell, they can only survive in muscle tissues, where they take over or direct a cell in much the same way a virus will. As far as I can tell, while there are medicines to treat the symptoms and some that can kill the adult worms in the intestine, there is currently nothing available to kill the larvae.
In North America the disease is pretty rare. Although with Jayko's death it is small consellation that the annual number of reported cases in the US is around 12 people, death occurrs rarely. Jayko, of course, isn't the only person up here who relishes Walrus. There are many people, including my in-laws. Apparently there are tests to determine infection and there are enough people shaken up by the death that most of them are going to seek out the tests. I know my in-laws have said they are giving up eating any walrus, and igunaq is something that they take great delight in eating.
Incredible that eating something that he greatly enjoyed was able to lay a good man low.
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