Death of children in Eastern India could be attributed to lychees

Children have been dying in some parts of Eastern India due to a mystery illness. Every year, the death toll comes to about 100 and it is felt that this death could be attributed to eating the delicious lychees. In the opinion of researchers, consuming the tropical fruit on an empty stomach could be the cause of the deaths.
There is a toxin in lychees that inhibits glucose levels and this, when combined with already low levels as a result of not eating, affects the brain. Outbreaks of the acute neurological illness have been reported since 1995 in Muzaffarapur, the main area in India where lychees are grown which lends credence to this theory. Moreover, the deaths usually coincided with the harvest season and most of the victims being children who hail from poor homes in rural villages.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 4 February 2017.

The study was carried out between May and July 2014 by American and Indian researchers - they compared children who had developed the condition and those that had not. Blood samples showed no signs of infection or exposure to chemicals and insecticides but, the children that became unwell had eaten lychees.
Another factor associated with this disease is skipping an evening meal in the 24 hours before the illness began. These findings could harm the livelihoods of lychee farmers.
Objections have been raised by the National Research Centre for Litchi - they feel such information is misleading because lychees of Muzaffarpur are very good in terms of nutritional value. People have been consuming it for over 200 years and, in 2016, the production was very good and such problem did not surface.
However, to be on te safe side, local health officials are advising parents to ensure their children have an evening meal and also put a check on the number of lychees they consume.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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