A mystery illness that killed hundreds of children every year in Bihar was caused by eating lychees on an empty stomach, say US and Indian scientists. According to a new research, published in The Lancet, it is suggested they were poisoned by the under-ripe fruit. Most of the victims were poor children in the main lychee-producing region who ate fruit that had fallen on to the ground in orchards, the journal said.
Lychees contain toxins that inhibit the body’s ability to produce glucose, which affected young children whose blood sugar levels were already low because they were not eating evening meal.
For years in villages of Bihar, these apparently healthy children used to wake up screaming in the night, convulsed with seizures. They then slipped into a coma and in almost 40% of cases died, much to the surprise and shock of doctors. They also suffered acute swelling of the brain.
Researchers examining sick children admitted to hospital in Muzaffarpur between May and July 2014 found a link to an outbreak of sickness that caused brain swelling and convulsions in children in the Caribbean.
That outbreak was caused by the ackee fruit, which contained hypoglycin, a toxin that prevents the body from making glucose. Tests then showed that lychees also contained hypoglycin. Children suffering symptoms connected with the outbreak should be immediately treated for hypoglycaemia, officials said.
In 2015 doctors in Bihar launched a campaign appealing to villagers to prevent their children from eating lychees and to give them an evening meal. The number of reported cases of the sickness has since fallen from hundreds each year to about 50.
