Outbreak: Thebaine Poisoning from Poppy Seed Tea in Australia

About this episode

This episode investigates the outbreak of thebaine poisoning linked to contaminated poppy seed tea in Australia.

In November 2022, hospitals across Australia began seeing patients with sudden rigidity, spasms, seizures—and in some cases cardiac arrest—after drinking homemade poppy seed tea. The source? Food-shelf poppy seeds contaminated with extraordinarily high levels of thebaine, an opioid alkaloid that acts nothing like morphine. In this Outbreak episode, host Ryan Feldman, clinical toxicologist and emergency medicine pharmacist, investigates how pharmaceutical-grade, thebaine-rich poppy seeds were mistakenly repackaged into the food supply—and how poison centers, clinicians, labs, and public health teams traced and contained the threat within days. You’ll hear firsthand from the experts who responded: Dr. Katherine Isoardi, Emergency Physician, Clinical Toxicologist, Medical Director, Queensland Poisons Information Centre Dr. Amanda Holford, Clinical Toxicology Fellow & Emergency Physician, Princess Alexandra Hospital Dr. Darren Roberts, Medical Director, NSW Poisons Information Centre; Nephrologist; Clinical Pharmacologist Together, they walk us through the outbreak timeline—from the first ICU cases and puzzling “strych­nine-like” neuroexcitation to the multi-state investigation…

People in this episode

Host: Ryan Feldman

Guests: Dr. Katherine Isoardi, Dr. Amanda Holford, Dr. Darren Roberts

Topics covered

• thebaine poisoning
• poppy seed tea
• clinical toxicology
• foodborne poisonings
• public health response
• outbreak investigation

Keywords

• thebaine
• poppy seed tea
• toxicology
• outbreak
• clinical presentation
• food safety
• public health

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Queensland Poisons Information Centre, Princess Alexandra Hospital, NSW Poisons Information Centre

Places: Australia

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