Reef or Madness

Ciguatera is the most reported “seafood toxin illness in the world”, and a majority of the planet has never heard of it. Experts estimate it affects up to 500 thousand people a year worldwide. This short documentary recounts the struggle of chronic Ciguatera sufferers who seek to regain some semblance of their healthy and productive lives following Ciguatera exposure and the incapacitating symptoms that can last for years. In some cases, their very will to live is tested by the devastating and debilitating chronic neurological affects of the fish-borne toxin. While Ciguatera is a recognized medical illness, many marine toxin specialists have yet to agree on how long people may suffer with the symptoms of the fish poison, leaving chronic sufferers to feel as if they are more crazy than sick. Their families and physicians are left wondering the same thing. The film will discuss the marine neurotoxin Ciguatoxin, and the related human illness Ciguatera, and give a “voice” to the sufferers of chronic Ciguatera, who face doubt, confusion and scorn from themselves, their families and friends, as well as the medical and scientific communities. If people knew that the fish they are about to eat is like playing Russian roulette with their health, they might think twice before taking that first bite.