The Orange County Register reports that California health officials warned restaurant diners Friday to avoid eating raw or undercooked freshwater regal crabs, which can carry a parasite that hospitalized two Orange County residents.
The state Department of Health Services determined that the crabs, formally called Sawagani crabs, were distributed to restaurants in at least 16 counties.
The state’s advisory came a week after public health officials in Orange County announced two cases of an unusual lung infection caused by the parasite paragonimus, which lived in the crabs.