The number of mysterious deaths of children in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district has risen to 54. Though the exact cause has not yet been confirmed, health professionals suspect the deaths to be linked to toxins present in lychees (also spelt as litchis).
Muzaffarpur is the lychee bowl of India. According to the Union agriculture ministry, 300,000 metric tonne of lychees were produced from 32,000 hectare under cultivation in Bhar in 2017.
The children showed symptoms of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), a neurological illness that involves inflammation of the brain. AES is colloquially known as “chamki bukhar” (chamki = seizure).
The symptons include high fever, vomiting, losing consciousness and seizures. The deaths have been reported from Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital and Kejriwal Hospital.
On Wednesday, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar issued an advisory asking parents not to give their children lychees on an empty stomach. Also the health department advised parents to warn children not to eat unripe or half-ripe lychees.
Health official Sanjay Kumar stated “International experts have told us that lychee has some kind of toxin that goes and deposits in the liver of these children, and when the temperatures go up, those toxins get released. The fact is that [Muzaffarpur] is a lychee-growing area. We suspect that there is some kind of role that lychee has in the case. But it is also true that once the temperature comes down and the rains come, lychee or no lychee, there are no more cases.”