Could litchi be behind mysterious sickness that has killed nearly 100 kids in India?
Nearly 100 children have died this month in India from an illness that impairs the functioning of the brain and sends the level of glucose in the blood plummeting.
Doctors describe the illness as Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, or AES, which is characterized by the rapid onset of fever combined with disorientation and seizures. The illness has been observed in the area since 1995, Kumar said, flaring up during the Indian summer when temperatures soar and subsiding with the arrival of the rains and somewhat cooler weather. Children are arriving at hospitals with critically low blood-sugar levels, he said.
A recent study conducted by India's National Center for Disease Control in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States pointed to a different possible cause for the illness. The area around Muzaffarpur is a major litchi-growing region, and the study found that toxins occurring naturally in the fruit were a plausible source of the illness, especially when children failed to eat an evening meal the day before becoming sick.
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